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THE BOY COLUMBUS 



COLUNIBUS 



AND 



WHAT HE FOUND 



MARY H. HULL 



J^ '^ ' '^ 



CHICAGO 

)Qma.riz ^enjperance fuUw^in^ ^gsociafion 

1892 



L^G> 



-+ 



£11 



COPYRIGHT, 1892 

TPoman'r? iJEcmpcvanc*? 'l^^uBtie^ing ^^eociafion 

CHICAGO 



To my own 

M&vnorj, Pi©rh>c<^ h.i\4 M©rf©t\, 

and their young- friends, 

Harold and Rush, John, Marion and Ida, Harold and 

Margery, Harvey, Emeline, Edna and Rex, 

I dedicate this book. 

It owes very much to your eager 

faces and questions, 

as, with pencils and notebooks in hand, 

you helped me to find 

What He Found, and How He Found It. 



PREFACE. 



The immoi'tal deed of Columbus will never lose its 
hold upon the heart of humanity, whatever the criticisms 
upon it. It will always be told, not only for what was 
found, but because simple heroism — the same element 
which has immortalized Greek heroic tales— will always 
move us, head and heart. 

It is strange that, great and simple as Columbus was, 
we have made so little use of his story for the children, 
compared with that of other historic characters. 

In the stilted past, for some reason, the head has made 
most of the estimates of the profits and losses to all con- 
cerned in this afi'air. We have not really known the man 
Columbus; hence we have not loved him. The deed 
has so blessed and dazzled us we have known only it. 

The world is growing simpler and sincerer and more 
kind. The heart shall yet do its reckoning and shall 
find the humanity of it all. For during a time of slavish 
bondage to rules and rank, regulations and institutions, 
here was a man, in spite of them, perfectly true to him- 
self and his God. 

" The greatest miracle among ye is. 
Here stands a man." 

Mentally, morally and physically, a most manly man 
is Columbus — and only a man. Why may we not take 
his character and personality, together with his position 



b IMIKFACK. 

iu the world of geography and history, and make him 
a sublime figure; one which may well stand to personify, 
as it were, these two so-called " studies," for at least the 
intermediate Avorld of childhood ? This great interme- 
diate world is at present most hungry for natural meth- 
ods of instruction. As Washington with liis "pony" 
and " hatchet " personifies patriotism in the Kindergar- 
ten world, why may not the characteristics of Columbus 
serve the youth of this yet young land, better than they 
have heretofore ? So much real life-blood was the cost 
of this great deed, that there is an infinite amount of 
material for any parent or teacher who cares to quicken 
a live interest in that which is a living study, begetting 
life. 

Not that hero-worship, unrestrained, is the object, 
but that something warmly human may stir the heart 
and mind through arresting the attention and securing 
an interest in human afiairs. It is no fable. The wan- 
derings and wouderings of this modern Ulysses are all 
so real that naught but heroism, self-denial to the point 
of self-discovery, can be breathed into the young Amer- 
ican if it be simply, sincerely and sympathetically placed 
before him. 

This is what i have tried to do in the present vol- 
ume. The motif was born of interest in my own children, 
and it developed as I caught more of the thought of the 
Kindergartners through my acquaintance with the Kin- 
dergarten Magazine and its editor, Miss Andrea Ilofer. I 
here wish to make acknowledgment of her most valuable 



PREFACE. 7 

suggestions, real aid, and encouragement in attempting 
such a worlv as this in these days of dire criticism and 
I'esearch. 

Witli original translations from the writings of Fer- 
nandez de Navarrette and Las Casas, whose great works 
are mines of Avealth for all writers ou Columbus in this 
century ; with Irving and Lamartine, Arthur Helps, 
Mackie and others to sweeten and inspire one's spirit, 
and with "Winsor to provoke it, and with the able 
American historian, John Fiske, at the very iast to con- 
firm the i^ositions taken, I have only to say I have done 
my best and am greatly indebted to them all. 

The World's Fair is at hand ; the greatest panorama 
of the ages is to be presented to our young folks. 
Columbus has come to his earthly kingdom, and the 
children cannot too well knoAV him, and through him 
what happened. 

Columbus has come to stay, even after the World's 
Fair is over. We have, somehow, reached a vantage- 
ground whence we are able not only to conceive of this 
lonely, single-handed, manly man and his inheren*^ genius 
and patience and faith, but we have also come to a point 
of l^ational birth where we begin universally to appre- 
ciate ourselves as a JSTation, and those who helped to 
create us. We are unifying more and moi-e, and are a 
peculiar people. America w^ll be stimulated in all her 
powers as never before, by all that shall be born of the 
Columbian Exposition. May the youth of America in- 
herit their full birthri^-ht. M. 11. II. 



gnllimhua and V^hat j-fa f alind. 



I. 

Wliat is it? What was born four hundred 
years ago? Was it a child? Yes, that is 
what it was, and the largest and most beau- 
tiful one that ever was born. 

This child seems almost to have come up 
out of the sea, as Venus did in the great 
stories of old, for that is where Columbus 
first fecund her, and it was in the very midst 
of the sea that she first came to life. 

The child is America, often sweetly called 
Columbia; and this book is about how this 
child was born. 

It is now just four hundred years since 
she was born, and I suppose you 
Birthday. already know of the great birth- 
day party we are going to have. 
The whole world is invited, and such a 



10 COLUMBUS AND WHAT III-: FOUXl). 

" time " as it will Ije, you have never seen 
and never ^vill see again in a hundred years; 
so let lis be wisely I'eady. 

Nearly every country on the gloT^e is either 
an uncle, a cousin, an aunt, or a grand- 
mother or a grandfather, or a great-grand- 
father, to this young child, and we must 
know about them or we will not be very 
happy at the party. So the sooner we begin 
to learn of them the better for us. 

This little birthday book, then, is an effort 
to introduce you to the real " Columbia, the 
Gem of the Ocean," and to tell you about 
her I'elatives, and to prepare you for the great 
birthday party, 

The WorUf s Fair. 



11. 



The very first tiling, boys and girls, shall 
be to go and see the spot which yet lies under 
the sun, where a big- eyed hero boy began to 
live. 

There has been a great deal of discussion 

as to where Columbus was born, but since 

_, the conclusions at the last are 

The City 

of Genoa ^^^'^^ ^^ ^^-^^ Genoa, we will go 
there at once, foi' ^ve have no use 
for talk here, and will only try to see what 
the l)oy saw, since it is Columbus himself we 
are most interested in. 

I invite 3'^ou to the city of Genoa, to the cit}' 
where Columbus Ijegan his ^^^onderful life in 
1485 or 1436, and where he combed wool and 
dreamed dreams, no doubt, of the great sea 
and its secrets. 

Genoa is one of the most picturesque places 



12 COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 

in the world, aucl very old, older than Eome. 
It was the greatest city in Europe, once. 
When Columbus was born, Genoa and Venice 
were capitals of two of the greatest powers 
in Europe. 

Genoa was a dreamy, beautiful spot, but 
not a sleepy town; it was just the place 
in which an imaginative boy should be 
born. 

Come with me and step into this little boat, 
and let us go out into the sea, off Genoa, 
and look back at it. At the very farthest 
faint line next to the sky, beyond the city, 
you will see the great Alpine mountains 
l^eeping over everything; and right on this 
side of them, do you trace the Apennines? 
And sloping on and on, down toward us, lie 
the hills right back of the town; all the 
green beauty of the hills, and plains, do you 
see it clustering there? And nearer, what is 
that around the city? That is a wall peeping 
out here and there. A wall so huge as that. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 13 

is a thing: wliicli we in America never see. 
What can it be for? In Europe you 
nearly always find a wall about a city. 
Why? Because the world used to fight so 
much. Within the wall see the beautiful 
churches rise high above everything — and 
those broad palaces and promenades yonder, 
with the houses and gardens surround- 
ing. 

The city which we have just looked at is 
now about as big as our Milwaukee. And 
this is all I can stop to tell you about 
Genoa, but you can read in many books 
of old Genoa and the brave Genoese. 

What kind of a boy was this who lived at 

Genoa? You must know how Columbus 

^. „ discovered himself, first, and found 
The Boy. ' ' . 

a great deal inside of his own 
mind long before he found the outside; that 
is, he thought for himself his own thoughts. 
The greatest discovery in earth or heaven 
is to find one's self. 



14 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

This is the great lesson of the life of Co- 
lumbus for our 1)oys and girls to-day. Of 
course, when he w^as a little boy, and until 

r., . he was a man, he did n't know 

Discoveries. 

exactly what that thing was 
which he should discover, but he knew there 
was something to be discovered. I believe 
every one of us not only may be, but should 
be, a born discoverer. Our main business in 
the world is to do this. 

For instance, if I were not to do any dis- 
covering for myself in this world, Init just 
see things as you see them, why, then I would 
only need to look out into the world through 
your eyes. But I do not do that; I have a 
pair of eyes of my own. Some people always 
forget to look out of their own eyes, so they 
learn only old things — and it is not the boys 
and girls alone who forget. 

The boy Columbus did both — he learned 
and he discovered. His mind ran free in 
thinking out his o^vn thouofhts while he 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 15 

was listening also to the thoughts of 
others. 

He was a real boy, too, not only, as I 
imagine, making boats and such things for 
himself, but we know he helped his father 
doing real work. His father had a lousiness, 
and a very good one in those days. He 
was a wool -comber and some say he was 
a weaver, also. They worked together, and 
many a day, no doubt, they talked of all 
that was going on in the world, for there 
were wonderful stories to tell in those times. 

There Avere three younger children in the 

family; two were brothers to Columbus, 

^, ^ .. and their names were Diego 
The Family. ° 

and Bartholomew. There was 
a sister also. No doubt she was good, too, 
yet women in those days, unless they were 
queens or something great, did not figure 
greatly in the world's doings. So we never 
hear much about her, except that she mar- 
ried somebody. 



16 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 

The father's name was Dominico, and the 
mother's was Susanna Fontanarossa. And 
right here let me tell you Columbus' own 
name. He was really Christoforo Colombo, in 
the Italian language, and was not Columbus 
until he became a great admiral of the Ocean 
Sea. In Spanish his name was Christoval 
Colon, and w^hile he lived in Sj^ain he was 
thus called. He then Latinized it and made 
it Christopher Columbus, as was the custom 
of the time. So let us call him Colombo ' 
while we think of him a boy at home, for that 
is what his father and mother w^ere called in 
the sweet Italian language. 

The bes^ business of all, thought this boy, 
must be the business of the sea: — and who 
would not think so, if it lay ever before our 
eyes so beautiful and inviting? His father 
seemed to understand him, for he let him 
study those studies which should best lit him 
for a life upon the water. Colombo first dis- 
covered this in himself, and his father was 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 17 

good enough to discover it in him also, and 
allow him to prepare for it. The boy and 
his father were real friends. 

Colombo had distant relatives by his own 
name who were great water-men, and fond of 
doing brave, daring, even wicked deeds, and 
so our boy sailed with them early in life, 
when he was but fourteen years of age. We 
must now find out something about this sea 
business, and see what Colombo must have 
watched every day of his life, for you know 
by the map that Genoa is situated on the 
Mediterranean. 

Venice is on the same sea, and you notice 

they are not very far apart from each 

other — only across Italy. But that 
The Sea. ,.,,. ^ -,-,-, . 

little bit of land lying between 

them kept them farther apart than did all 

the distance by water down around the 

whole of Italy. You must remember that 

vessels were the main things in the world 

to go about in. It was a dreadful under- 



18 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

taking to travel over ground, especially in 
a mountainous country; and you remember 
those mountain ranges that lie back of 
Genoa. It was always very hard, slow work 
to go anywhere except l)y water, until — just 
think ! — only within the last forty or fifty 
years. 

It is only within a few years that people 
could fly around on land, by steam. The 
poor old world, or, rather, everybody in it, 
for thousands of years had to go al)out 
either afoot, on horseback, or on camel- back, 
or be drawn by animals in chariots, carts or 
wagons, o]' in very poor, queer carriages. 
Not another way was there under the sun 
for people to travel around any easier or 
faster over mountains, or through mud. It 
took weeks and weeks to bury even a 
queen, four hundred years ago, in Colombo's 
time ; for when the beautiful Queen Isa- 
bella died, we are told her subjects suf- 
fered greatly going up and down liills and 



COLTjMBtTS AND WHAT HE rOtT]>fD, 19 

tln'ougli mud for miles, to attend the 
funeral. 

Let me tell you something, right here. 
Less than fifty years ago, a gentleman living 
in Cincinnati was offered a fine position on a 
newspaper in Chicago, and he did not accept 
it because the journey of two weeks, by river, 
canal and lakes, from Cincinnati to Chicago, 
would be too hard for his family. Now, 
you can go to bed in a " sleeper " in either 
of these cities, and waken in the morning in 
the other city, having been tucked up warmly 
in a most comfortable bed all night. 

It is no Avonder, then, that boats, ships and 
the business of the water were great things in 
the world at that day, and no wonder that 
the boy Colombo longed for the sea. But 
even the sea vessels did not go by steam as 
they do now, only l)y sails and oars. 

All around the Mediterranean is where the 
world began really to live and move for 
thousands of years before Colombo was 



20 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

l)oi'ii. Around this sea, not a hundredth 
part as big as the Atlantic (and your map 

will prove it), is where all 

The World , .. . . n . 

the livmof, movmo; world lor 
around the /' ^ . . ^ 

„ .. thousands of years had been 

iiediterranean. '' 

crowded. And even there, 
they only lived on the edges of the land 
and never moved very far from the water. 

The old Jews lived at the east end of the 
sea. You know the story of the long, slow 
journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with 
their horses and camels, flocks and herds, 
over this eastern land, and of the children 
of Israel as they went from old Egy2:)t to 
Palestine, the promised land. 

Greece, on this wonderful sea, is also the 
spot where a great era passed in the history 
of the world. Years and years the people 
there carved wonderful sculpture and thought 
wonderful thoughts. 

Then, here, in Italy (shaped like an old- 
fashioned boot), hanging down into this 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 21 

crowded little sea, centered the great Roman 
Empire with the Caesars at its head. 

Thick and fast, humanity had piled itself 
and its great liistory around this wonderful 
center. No, not "thick and fast," — that 
is a mistake, for not fast did they come to live 
here. How long do you suppose history was 
in creeping from the time of Abraham, over 
here in Palestine, to the time of the Caesars 
down here at Rome? Why, nearly two thou- 
sand years. And how long from this two 
thousand years when the Caesars ruled Rome 
— that\s about the time Jesus Christ was 
born over here in Palestine — do you suppose 
it is, until now? Why, you know that, it is 
one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two 
years! Just see how we talk about time, 
old Father Time. 

Now all these years, except the last little 

four hundred years when Co- 
Father Time. 

lumbus louud another great 

sea to cross, moving humanity had crowded 



22 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 

itself — not so '' fast," but very " thick " — 
around this Mediterranean Sea. For how 
long? Shall we figure on that? 

The 1892 years, with which we date all our 
letters and legal papers, make what we call 
our Christian era, the time from Christ until 
now (the sign is A. D.); add to it the two 
thousand years B. C. (before Christ), that is, 
go to the time of Abraham, and you have 
three thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
two years. Subtract these last important 
four hundred years and we have three 
thousand four hundred and ninety-two years 
still left. Just think how, for all this long 
time, people crowded around this sea before 
Columbus discovered a greater one! 

Now wait, there was another very strange 

thing in the world always. No one yet 

knows ho^v long there had been 

another lot of people over in what 

we now call China, India, Japan, etc., 

who were never-moving people. They did 



COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 23 

not know anything about the " world," and 
the " world " did n^t know anything about 
them. They did not even know about each 
other when many miles apart. (By the 
word " world," we mean the thinking, mov- 
ing world, that which is thinking and 
moving yet.) 

These people around the sea were really 
" the world," for they found out things, while 
China has found out very little as yet, and 
had never heard of any world beyond her own 
save that there were people in the West 
called the Latins, until some one or two hun- 
dred years before Colombo was born! Then 
a wonderful man named Marco Polo found 
out all about this Far East. And this Far 
East king, called Kubla-Khan, found out from 
Marco Polo all about the Latins. " Latins " 
is the best name for our Mediterranean Sea 
people; for a few hundred years they were 
Grecians, then after that, when there were 
still more of them, they were Romans (and 



24 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE P^OUND. 

spoke Latin), so we will call them Latins 
for the present. We are going to the very 
bottom of this thing, to find out just "SN^hat 
that child found out, for we can. Do you 
not helieve we can? 

Now Marco Polo climbed over to the Far 
East and back, somehow, and spent twenty- 
six years doing so, and then wrote a book 
which excited everybody the more and 
more they read it. It told 
most wonderful thinfrs al^out 
that region. Colombo's father must have 
heard of it, too, for the l)ook was nearly 
two hundred years old when Colombo was 
l)oni, and wealthy men of Genoa owned 
just such l)ooks. 

Marco Polo was a Venetian, and he wrote 
the book while in prison at Genoa. lie was 
there because the Genoese, once upon a time, 
overcame the Venetians in a fight, and he 
w^as taken pi'isoner with others. While there, 
for five or six years, with nothing else to do, 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 25 

he wrote iij) his travels. All books were 
written by hand, you know, until printing 
came. People did not believe half that was 
in this book, but Polo on his dying bed de- 
clared it was true, when he was questioned 
by his confessors. People have since found 
out that he wrote the truth. Columbus 
by his confessors. We know now that 
much of it was true. Columbus, in the 
main, believed every word of this book, 
of Cathay which Columbus expected to find 
in the Ocean Sea. 

You must have a little of this book right 
here. You can get it for yourself, if you 
wish, and read of these most interestinf>- 
travels.'^" 

Marco Polo tells of many kingdoms and 
empires which he saw. He describes mi- 
nutely and most quaintly very many strange 
things, and it helps us to understand how 



*The Travels of Marco Polo, by Thos. W. Knox. 



26 COLUMBUS AJSTD WHAT HP] FOUND. 

Columbus was always so sure he liad found 
Marco Polo's " kin2:doms " when he discov- 
ered our continent; for many strange things 
were very similar, such as climate, animals, 
birds, and, most of all, the mild temper of 
the inhabitants. 

Marco Polo describes the great king of 
Cathay, his palace, his habits, and his cap- 
ital city, Quinsay. It was like a story of 
fairyland. Read what C()loml;)o read. IN^o 
wonder he tried to find it: 

" All the streets of the city are paved with 
stones or brick, so that you ride or travel in 
every direction without inconvenience. Were 
it not for this pavement you could not do so, 
for the country is very low and flat. But as 
the Great Khan's couriers could not gallop 
their horses over the pavement [the Great 
Khan was kinder to his horses than we in 
Chicago are], the side of the road is unpaved 
for their convenience. The pavement of the 
main street of the city, also, is laid out in t\vo 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 27 

parallel ways of ten paces in width on either 
side, leaving a space in the middle laid with 
fine gravel, under which are vaulted drains 
that convey the rain-water into the canals; 
and thus the road is kept dry. 

" You must know the city has three thou- 
sand baths, the water of which is supplied 
by springs; they are hot baths, and the peo- 
ple take great delight in frequenting them 
several times a month, for they are very 
cleanly in their persons. They are the 
largest and finest l^aths in the world; large 
enough for one hundred persons to bathe 
together." 

The great Pacific, as we now know it to be, 
was called by Polo, " Ocean Sea," the same 
name by which the Mediterranean people had 
always called the Atlantic, so of course every- 
body thought there was but one ocean. " The 
Ocean Sea," wrote Marco Polo, " comes within 
twenty-five miles of the city, where there is 
a town and an excellent haven. A great river 



28 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 

flows from the city of Quinsay to that sea 
haven, by which vessels can come to the 
city itself." 

He tells how this Great Khan controlled 
nine great kingdoms, which had each a 
lesser king. 

" In the whole of this vast country there 
are more than one thousand two hundred 
great and wealthy cities, without counting the 
towns and villages, which are in great num- 
bers. And you may believe it for certain that 
in each of these one thousand two hundred 
cities the Great Khan has a garrison, and that 
the smallest five of such garrisons muster one 
thousand men each, while there are some of 
ten thousand, twenty thousand and thirty 
thousand, so that the total number of troops 
is something scarcely calculable. 

" The people are idolaters, and since they 
were conquered by the Great Khan they use 
paper money. Both men and \vomen are 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 29 

fair and comely, and for the most part clothe 
themselves in silk. 

" The people have a custom that as soon 
as a child is horn, they write down the day 
and hour, and the planet and sign under 
which its birth has taken place; so that 
every one among them knows the day of his 
birth. And when any one intends a journey 
[the greatest thing in the world was a jour- 
ney], he goes to the astrologers and gives 
tliem particulars al^out his l)irth in oi'der to 
learn, whether he shall have good luck or no. 
These astrologers are very skillful in their 
business, and often their words come true, 
so the people have great faith in them. 

" The natives of the city are men of peace- 
ful character, both from education and from 
the example of their king, whose disposition 
is the same. They know nothing of hand- 
ling arms, and keep none in their houses. 
In their dealings and in their manufact- 
ures they are thoroughly honest and truth- 



30 OOLttMBTTS AISTD WHAT HE FOtJlsri). 

fill, uiid tliere is such a degree of good will 
and neigld)orly attaclinieiit among l)otli men 
and Avonien tliat yon would take the peo- 
ple Avho live in the same street to be al' 
of one family. Yon hear no feuds or nois} 
quari'els or discussions among them [surely 
they had no saloons]. 

" The city of Quinsay hath an hundred 
miles of compass [that is, a hundred miles 
around it]. And in it there are twelve 
thousand bridges of stone, so lofty that a 
great fleet could pass beneath them. And let 
no man marvel that there are so many 
bridges, for you see the whole city stands, ae 
it were, in the water, and surrounded b} 
Avater, so that a g.reat many bridges are re 
quired to give free passage about it. And 
though the bridges are so high the approaches 
are so well contrived that horses and carts 
do cross them."" This city is the modern 
Hangcluui. 

'^ Men of craft [men of business, that is], 



COLtTMBtJS AJSri) WHAT HE POUND. 3l 

they nor tlieir wives ever toucli a piece of 
work with their own hands, but live as 
nicely and delicately as if they were kings 
and queens. The wives, indeed, are most 
dainty and angelical creatures. 

" Inside this city is a lake which has a 
compass of some thirty miles, and all 
around it are erected beautiful palaces and 
mansions, the most exquisite yon can imagine ; 
in the middle of the lake are two islands, 
on each of which stands a rich, lieautiful 
and spacious edifice furnished in such style 
as to seem fit for the palace of an emperor. 
And when any one of the citizens desires 
to hold a marriage feast, or to give any 
other entertainment, it used to be done at 
one of these palaces; and everything would 
l)e found there ready to order, such as silver 
plate, trenchers, and dishes, napkins and 
table-cloths, and ^vhatever else was needful. 
The king made this provision for the grati- 
fication . of his people, and the place was 



32 COLUMBUS AND WJIAT HE FOUISTD. 

open to every one who desired to give an 
entertainment. Sometimes there would be at 
these places an hundred different parties; 
some holding a banquet, others celebrating a 
wedding; and yet all would find good ac- 
commodations in the different apartments 
and pavilions, and that in so well-ordered 
a manner that one party was never in 
the way of another." 

Just think of one hundred parties at one 
time! It is no wonder they called it "The 
City of Heaven," for that was their idea of 
heaven. Polo goes on giving descriptions of 
hospitals and " guards " (like our policemen), 
postmen and timekeepers, and many such 
things, so that it is not strange that he 
stops sometimes and says, " It seems past 
belief to one who merel}' hears it told, but 
I will write it down for you." 

He tells about one thing that I cannot 
leave out, and that is how they gave the 
alarm for lire or danger of any kind. 



COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. .'il^ 

" Within this city there is an eminence on 
which stands a tower, at the top of the 
tower is hunc: a slal) of Avood. Whenever 
iire or any other alarm breaks out in the 
city, a man who stands there with a mallet 
in his hand beats upon the slab, making a 
noise that is heard at a great distance." 
Was n't that a strange hre-bell? 

Now hear a little about the king's palace: 
"You must know a little of its demesne [its 
grounds] hath a compass of ten miles, all in- 
closed with lofty walls, and inside the walls 
are the finest and most delectable gardens 
upon earth. There are numerous fountains 
in it, also, and lakes full of iish. In the 
middle is the palace itself. It contains twenty 
great and handsome halls, one of which is 
more than the rest and affords room for a 
vast multitude to dine in. It is all painted 
in gold with representations of histories and 
birds and beasts, knights and dames, and 
many marvelous things. It forms really a 



34 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

magnificent spectacle, for on all the walls and 
all the ceilings, you see nothing but paint- 
ings in gold. And besides these halls the 
palace contains one thousand large and 
handsome chambers all painted in gold and 
divers colors. 

" From the Ocean Sea also come daily sup- 
plies of fish in great quantity. One would 
suj^pose so great a quantity could never be 
sold, and yet in a few hours the whole is 

cleared away For a Venice groat 

of silver you can have a couple of geese and 
two couple of ducks. Then there are calves, 
beeves, kids and lambs, the flesh of which 
is eaten by the rich and the dignitaries. 
Indeed, they eat fish and flesh at the same 
meal. 

" These markets make a dainty display of 
every kind of vegetables and fruits ; there are 
pears of enormous size, weighing as much as 
ten pounds aj^iece, the pulp of wdiich is white 
and fragrant like a confection, besides peaches 



COLUMBUS Ai^D WHAT HE FOUlSrD. 85 

in tlieir season, both yellow and white, of 
ev> ry delicate flavor. 

" These natives do not care much for wine, 
being used to that kind of tlieir own made 
from rice and spices. To give you an example 
of the vast consumption in this city, let us 
take the article of ijepper [his own italics], 
and that will enable you to estimate what 
must be the quantity of victuals provided for 
the general consumption. Now Messer Marco 
[he always says Messer Marco in S2:)eaking of 
himself, instead of saying /J heard it stated 
by one of the Great Khan's officers of cus- 
toms, that the quantity of pepper introduced 
daily into the- city of Quinsay amounted to 
forty-three loads, each load being equal to 
two hundred and twenty-three pounds." 
Imagine a city that used nine thousand 
five hundred and eighty-nine pounds of 
pepper in one day! 

That is enough from the great Polo l)ook. 
I imagine it is the book our Colond^o boy in 



36 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUI^D. 

the frontispiece lias been reading, as lie sits 
so dreamily on the very outjoost of some 
wharf — for see, his foot rests on the great 
ring to which vessels are fastened. Here he 
reads of a vast kingdom somewhere in the 
world Avhere there are lakes of pearls, 
mountains of gold and beautiful stones; reads 
of that other magic king, " Prester John," 
reads of the "Roof of the World," where 
all supjDOse the garden of Paradise to be; 
and he reads of how they were idolaters, 
how they knew nothing of the Christian 
religion: and "O! what a world this is," 
he thinks, as he looks into the sea. " I 
love it, and I must discover all I can of it." 
Late students and critics ])elieve that 
Marco Polo's book led to the discovery of 
the New World more than any other one 
thing, for from Columbus' own ^vritings he 
seems to have known every line of it, and 
was always inspired and led on to his dis- 
coveries by it. 



III. 



Colombo returned to liis home from school 
in Pavia at fourteen years of age. Nobody 
seems to know how long he was there, or 
whether he had any more " school " of that 
kind or not. One thing we know, he had 
plenty of life-school, which was no doubt a 
better education for a great discoverer than 
a book-school could have been. His sou — his 
first biographer — does not tell us any small 
things of his father's l)oyhood life, but only 
that he went to school at Pavia. That 
sounded great and really was great in those 
days, for school was not very easy to go to. 
It cost much money. There were l)ut few 
schools in the world at that time. One at 
Pavia up in Italy among the mountains and 
one at Paris, France, were the two most im- 
portant ones. 

37 



38 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

And Avliat strange schools tliey were, ^vitli- 
out any books! Eyes and ears and Lands 
had to l)e used instead j ears to hear what 
was told l)y teachers during lectures, and then 
eyes and hands to write the things down. In 
this ^vay pupils had to l;)e ready for exam- 
inations. Examination Avas recitation and 
recitation was examination all the time. 

Colombo studied geography, astronomy 
and navigation, and some Latin. These 

are pretty l)road studies for a 
Colombo's / 

boy or fourteen, but they proved 
Studies. ' . . 

to be the great foundation of his 

life. His geography, indeed, must have been 
a puzzling and exciting study. It must 
have been based on Ptolemy's geography, 
which was then over one thousand three 
hundred years old. The Roman Empire, as 
it had beeri spread about the Mediterranean 
Sea, was correctly mapped out, but Africa 
was a queer-looking affair stretching out 
away to the south and to the west. Nobody 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 89 

knew how far it should go, for iiol)ody 
had ever seen any farther south than wdiat 
was then called Cape Nun, meaning none, 
nothing beyond. It is now called Cape 
Verde. You can see in your geography 
that it does appear to be the jumping-off 
place, with nothing beyond, and when we 
realize how very warm it is there so near 
the equator, we need not be surprised that 
the people thought it was boiling hot farther 
on, and probably was the edge of the 
world. So Cape Nun was a good name. 

A queer-shaped England was in this 
geography; Iceland, called Ultima Thule, 
the end, was in a very strange place; so 
Avere Scotland and Ireland. 

It decided that the ocean did not go to 
the end of the world, wherevei' that was, or 
however that was, as others had taught, l)ut 
that land must l)e the end, or edge, for what 
would hold the water together if it were not 
surrounded by land? So all unknown laud 



40 COLUMBUS AND WHAT JIE FOUND, 

Avas termed Terra Incognita; that is, Land 
Unknown. 

As to the shape of the earth, great uncer- 
tainty prevailed. Ptolemy lived at Alexan- 
dria, down on the southern coast of the 
Mediterranean Sea, in Egypt, to which 
nearly all the wonderful books of Greece 
and Rome were taken and where they were 
saved when the barbarians overran all 
Europe during what we call the Middle 
Asces of the world. He lived in the second 
century after Christ, and the geography had 
not been changed a great deal even when 
Colombo studied it in the fifteenth century, 
for so little had l^een found out in the 
world in all that time, which could chano;e 
it. 

The world, even this learning world around 
the Mediterranean, had not groAvn very fast, 
not to know more geography than Ptolemy 
did one thousand three hundred years before. 
Something happened to all Europe, and that 



COLUMBtrs AND WHAT HE FOUND. 41 

is why it did n't learn faster in all those years. 
The next chapter will tell you what it was 
that happened. 

The Grecians and Romans away back Ijefore 

Christ, had some notion that the world was 

round, and Ptolemy dared to 

ncer ain y g^^j,j^-^jgg something of the kind ; 

as to the i i i i •, i i 

he thousfht that it was shaped 
Shape of ^ ^ 

the Earth ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^ round apj)le cut 
through the middle, and resting 
on its flat side; for of course, said he, it had 
to stand on something. 

We shall come to a time when Colombo, in 
his weary hunting, concluded it was more like 
a pear, with a sort of high part as a pear has 
at the stem end. He was pretty sure once that 
he had come to that part, and that it ^^as the 
roof of the world, for Marco Polo had written 
about that roof. And as an earthly Paradise 
was the hope and dream of all the world 
through those Middle Ages, it seemed very 
likely to lie on the top of this pear-shaped 



42 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

world. Marco Polo' described what he had 
seen on the " Roof of the World," and it was 
to him like Paradise, and so of course Colum- 
bus hoped he ^vas near it when he seemed to 
come to a place where marvelous waters came 
pouring down as if from such a great roof. 
Poor man, he was only at the mouth of the 
Orinoco River. But this was during his 
fourth voyage, and I must not get so far 
ahead of my story. 

This Paradise had been located in various 
places by old ti'^'^'^l^i'^? ^^i^^^ ^^'^s always an 

„ interestino; place to hunt for. Once 

Paradise. ^ ^ 

it was supposed to be on the island 
of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, but when 
that island came to be l)etter known, the 
notion Avas given up and everybody supposed 
it was to be found in the Avonderful land of 
Cathay. Marco Polo had surely found a 
strangely beautiful place, and since people 
supposed Paradise must he somewhere in the 
world, it is not surprising that Columbus put 



COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 43 

the tlioiiglit of the Paradise, and the roof, and 
his idea of the pear-shaped world, all together, 
and suj^posed he was alxnit to make this most 
interesting of all discoveries. Ponce de Leon, 
many years after^\ard, yon know, also came to 
America fnlly expecting to find the Fountain 
of Youth. 

To go l)ack to our geography: Some an- 
cients had said the world was round like a 
flat cake floating, instead of being round like 
an apple or a pear. Some had also come to 
the conclusion that it was in the form of a 
globe. But when Colund)us was a boy, and 
a young man, people were talking about 
many w^onderful new things, no matter ^vhat 
geographies taught. 

The Portuguese had found out in 1412 that 

they could get j^^'^t ^^^^^ 

The Wild Stories r^ -^ i x i 

Cape JNun and not l)e 

Changed by the 

^ burned up. What a won- 

Portuguese. / 

derful thing! They also dis- 
covered some new islands out in the Ocean 



■44 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Sea. Porto Santo was one, remember it. 
These things all meant M^onderful ])<)ssi- 
bilities. If one thing was done another 
conld he done. The gates of the Avorld 
seemed to be opening. The great doubts 
al)out water and land and the shape of the 
earth were going to be exj^lained. Igno- 
rance was orrowino; to ])e unendurable to a 
few spirited souls. Good Prince Henry was 
one of the wisest. He founded a sort of 
school for navigation at Lisbon when Co- 
lumbus Avas yet a boy at his home in Italy. 

Yet others concluded that water was the 
end of the world instead of land, for the last 
thing seen by those who had sailed the far- 
thest, ^vas water, water everywhere. The 
world might end in a watery mist where it 
joined the sky, since the weather and A\'ater 
seemed to get hotter and hotter the farther 
toward the south one went. They knew that. 

Wild stories were told about men getting 
into such hot places that they could n't get 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 45 

back again, and had been baked to deatli on 
their vessels. The hot snn over them and the 
hot water beneath, so roasted them that when 
one went to pick tliem up their arms came 
off their bodies. This was not all; people 
said there were boiling whirlpools away 
off there, which sucked the vessels right 
into hot water. 

This awful south must have had a fearful 
look to little children when they were all 
alone at night, as they gazed off in that 
direction. Colombo, no doul)t, heard these 
great sea stories when a boy; and, indeed, 
when he grew to be a man, even ready to sail 
into the great unknown, these stories had not 
improved any. They had been located farther 
away, however, as new discoveries were being 
made. Marco Polo did tell for truth, and I 
have read it in his book, how men would 
die and be l)aked in hot deserts. 

You see, Colombo was studying a very 
queer sort of geography all liis life; not l)Ook 



46 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

geography, for old Ptolemy was fast being 
changed by real geography. The Portuguese 
were moving about and making new and 
wonderful discoveries. These new discoveries 
required new maps, and this is what gave 
our Columbus a living when he came to 
be a man. 

We must go back a little. Colombo com- 
menced his sea- school, we say, at fourteen 
years of age, with men by the name of 
Colombo. Then he could go on studying 
astronomy, also, by watching the stars them- 
selves; so his astronomy became actual as 
well as his geography. By sailing and 
" roughing it " for about ten years, until he 
was twenty -five years of age, he studied actual 
navigation by being in close contact with real 
water and waves and storms and calms, and 
learnino: to manao:e real vessels. All this, 
added to his studies at Pavia, made him a 
regular graduate of Divine Providence, be- 
cause he early committed his way^to God, and 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 47 

it would seem God took liim and prepared 
him for liis great work in life's school. 

He sailed everywhere around the Mediter- 
ranean, and from this he passed out between 
those two great giant rocks on each side of 
the Strait of Gibraltar, into the mighty deep. 
How they must have seemed to his impres- 
sionable nature like great gods guarding the 
beautiful, homelike sea he had always known, 
from the great Ocean Sea. They always had 
to pass between them, and then his voyage 
would be up and down the coast, never very 
far from land. The Genoese were very brave 
men on water, and were often hired by other 
nations to do their fighting for them. This 
was ]3i'obably the main business of the men 
with Avhom our young Colombo began his 
lessons in navigation. This was why he was 
sometimes supposed to be a pirate. We 
know merchants hired just such men to carry 
their goods to and fro from the Levant — the 
east end of the Mediterranean, to which pre- 



48 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

cioiis silks and cloths came from the fabulous 
Far East. 

Colombo in his ten years' life on the water 

learned, no doubt, about every kind of vessel. 

I think you will like to know 

a little al^out what he learned; 
the Fifteenth 

it \vill not take you more 
Century. 

than ten minutes to get a 
pretty good idea. 

There were merchant vessels (we have 
freight cars, instead) and war vessels of all 
sorts and sizes, though none could carry more 
than five hundred tons. The galleys were the 
most ancient of war vessels, and were used 
by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, hun- 
dreds of years before; sometimes they had 
many rows, or banks, of oars, one bank placed 
above the other. The top oars had to be 
the longest, so as to reach the water, and 
they would tlien l)e so heavy to handle that 
the end next to the " galley slave " who 
used it, had to l)e loaded Avith lead. Just 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 49 

think, tlie oar is the oldest and the youngest 
instrument used in navigation, and is llie 
most like a human hand paddling along. 
The " galley slaves " were convicts and 
prisoners who would be chained to their 
places for years and years at a time, and 
there they would have to sit where they 
could see nothing while they worked these 
great oars, all working together by music 
or the sound of a bell. 

When iive rows of oars were used the 
vessel was called a quireme; when four 
rows, a quadreme; three rows, a trireme. 
In the fifteenth century, however, these 
galleys seldom had more than one row, or 
bank, of oars. These galleys were often 
very gorgeously adorned. They had a beak 
in front with which they would run against 
an enemy's vessel and break a hole in it. 
Now the use of gunpowder, you must know, 
made a wonderful change in the world, be- 
cause it changed war methods. Men had 



50 rOLUMBT^S AND AVHAT HE FOTTND. 

fouglit Avitli galleys of all sorts and shapes, 
but gunpowder made them of less and less 
use in war; yet up to the eighteenth cent- 
ury there still remained some sort of a 
galley. 

The Maltese galley carried five hundred 
forty-nine persons, including the galley 
slaves. The gallea and galleon were the 
first improvements on the galley. The ar- 
tillery was placed fore and aft, and had to 
shoot onl}^ in front or from behind, else 
they would kill their own oarsmen. In the 
gallea they relied on sails altogether and 
got rid of their oars, or had overhanging 
sides for oars. The o-alleon had the sides 

o 

" tumble home," that is, bend in at the top 
so that sometimes the bottom of the boat 
was twice as Avide as the top. 

We read of our young Colombo having 
command of a galley, so you see he must 
luive known about every little " nook and 
corner " in it. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 51 

There were also many other kinds of ves- 
sels, generally about three hundred tons 
weight. This was, perhaps, the weight of 
the largest of Columbus^ three ships in 
which he first crossed the Atlantic. No- 
body knows exactly — but from a reliable 
source we read his vessel was only sixty- 
three feet long, — twenty feet l)eam and fifty - 
one feet keel, the depth being ten and 
one-half feet. AVhat a small vessel com- 
pared with the eight and ten thousand ton 
vessels, which are six hundred and eight 
hundred feet long, crossing the ocean nowa- 
days ! 

Very few vessels had any decks in the fif- 
teenth century. The forecastle was at first 
a sort of platform built out on tlie front of 
the ship for the archers and soldiers to 
stand on while thev fous^ht. Then these 
platforms came to be housed in, and then 
they were called forecastles. Inside this 
place, the ship's ofiice Inisiness was trans- 



52 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

acted. Tlien vessels came to have a castle 
at eacli end of the boat. Finally these 
castles were made to cover the whoh^ 
vessel; they were then "decked.'" There 
were also "topcastles" at the top of the 
masts where men would be stationed so 
that they could annoy the enemy with darts, 
missiles, stones, or anything of that kind. 
These w^ere on the largest ships, and it 
took four or five years to build such an 
one. 

Then there were other kinds. Carracks 
were next in size, and were more generally 
used in trade, mostly by the Genoese and 
Venetian, and were armed, for merchants 
in the Mediterranean Sea had to figlit to 
keep from having their goods stolen from 
them. They were usually of one hundred 
to two hundred tons weight. 

Barges and l)alingers were still smalU^' 
vessels with no " castles " on them. Tlu^se 
were used for adventure and to reconnoitre, 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 53 

as they drew little water and could go in 

advance of larger vessels and find out how 

things were. When several of them went 

off on foreign voyages they usually sailed 

in " convoys," that is, a lot of them would 

sail together. Four harges and two l^alin- 

gers were capable of holding one hundred 

twenty men-at-arms and four hundred 

eighty archers and sailors. 

Their fighting implements were habergeons, 

basinets (examine your dictionaries), bows 

^. , and arrows, iacks, taro-ets. 

The Armament ' / ' ^ 

* ci,-«<, lances and firins;- barrels, fire- 

oi snips. <=' ' 

arrows and sometimes cannon. 
In 1490 a Venetian historian writes of the 
" novelty of firearms " as follows, giving a 
pretty good description of our present gun. 
" The use of iron tubes," he says, " trans- 
mitted to us from Germany, is Ijecome im- 
portant among our soldiery. These tubes 
by the force of fire, discharge leaden bullets 
with extraordinary violence, and wound from 



54 COUTMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

a distance. Tliey are of the same shape and 
form as a cannon l)y which walls are l)at- 
tered, Avith this difference, however, that the 
latter are cast from brass, and are often of 
so great weight as to require iron and solid 
bound carriages, and a vast number of horses 
for their transportation. Tlie tubes, on the 
other hand, are made of iron fixed on a 
wooden butt, so that one may be handled 
by every soldier singly. They are loaded 
by gunpowder which is easily kindled, and 
when the bullet has been I'ammed down 
they are discharged from the shoulder. 

" The Council of Ten, anxious to obtain a 
supply of men skilled in these weapons, have 
collected from all cpiarters persons ^vho are 
masters of their use, and have sent them into 
different towns to instruct the youth. Two 
adults from each village shall devote them- 
selves to this every year. There shall be an 
assembly of these marksmen at some spot 
fixed by themselves for shooting at a target." 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 55 

We thus see how people were interested 
in new things, and gunpowder was one of 
them. 

Many vessels Avere highly ornamented. The 
sails were often gorgeous in color, and the 
fiont of the boat would be made into many 
interesting shapes, like that of a horse's head 
or a swan. 

In the fifteenth century, for the first time, 
somebody thought of having a rudder made 
fast behind tlie vessel to be managed by 
ropes or chains, taking the place of two 
great oars which had formerly been used 
for steering the vessel. 

The sails of the sliip were a square one in 
front, called the mainsail, hung on a yard, 
the yard being fastened to the mainmast; 
the sails back of this were called lateen sails, 
were smaller and of a triangular shape, such 
as we have now, except that they were on 
crooked masts. The smaller boats had only 
lateen sails. 



5() COLUMBUS ANJ) WHAT HE FOUND. 

The com]3ass was another new thing in 
those days. Marco Polo had found it in 
China and had brought it to Europe two 
hundred years before, but it was not in gen- 
eral use as a guide until many years after. 
At first it was called " sail-stone," " lode- 
stone," " sailing-needle," etc., before it was 
develojDed into the " compass " that we know. 
But it was a most wonderful turning-point 
in navigation. 

Colombo sailed in all sorts of ways, no 
doubt, for ten years, getting all sorts of 
lessons in navigation. He learned to be the 
greatest navigator the world has ever known, 
not only on wide, open, unknown seas, ])ut 
also in strange and dangerous shallow waters, 
and among rocks and islands; not only in 
storm and peril, as you will see, but in times 
of peace. He never was " caught napping " 
but once, and then he ought to have napped 
if he had only had trusty sailors about 
him. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 57 

Toward the end of liis schooling in navi- 
gation, when he was abont twenty-five years 

„. „, , old, we hear of him in a terrible 
His Wreck. 

wreck off the coast of Portug-al. 
He may have been living in Portugal at the 
time, nobody knows for certain, but it seems 
he was certainly Avrecked off the coast and 
remained in Portugal until he went to Spain. 
"He certainly landed at this time in a very 
sorry plight near Lisbon. 

He was in command of a galley during a 
naval fight off the coast of Lisbon. His 
vessel grappled with the enemy's and both 
caught fire, his only escape being to jump 
into the water. He s\vam six miles to shore 
during a very high sea, with the help of an 
oar, and was much exhausted when he reached 
the end of his perilous journey. But he was 
a very strong and brave young man, and this 
was a time when muscle and courage saved 
him. But he landed, and with him landed 
the fate of our " Columl^ia, the gem of the 



58 



COLIIMBUS AND WHAT UK FOUND. 



ocean." Ah! if lie had been lost then, there 
is no telling how much longer she would 
have remained unborn! 

He was a long time ill from his terrible 
swim, l)ut he recovered, and we next find 
him a regular attendant at church, and fall- 
ing in love with a beautiful young lady. 




IV. 

" The term Middle Ages is applied to the 
period extending from 476 to the discovery 
of America in 1492." 

History says this. Read it carefully: Avhat 
Columl:)us did will always be talked about, 
because this discovery was the beginning of 
our Modern Age, and was the ending of the 
Middle Age. 

That time called " Middle Ages " is what 
this talk is about, and I think it is the most 
interesting one we have, but you may " skip 
it " if } ou wish to hurry on after Columbus. 

But since Columbus himself was made up 
out of this Middle Age, it is very important 
to know what the world was like and what 
our Colombo T)oy came to, and what he had to 
liear and see and study, or we cannot even 
imagine how it ever happened that he changed 
things so. 

59 



60 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

It is IK) Avuiider Ave are celebi'atiDg our four- 
hundredtli birthday, Ly having a World's 
Fair, Learn all you can at this very time, 
for neither you nor any one now living will 
see another birthday like it. 

Colombo changed things so, because he 
was born at just the right time, and because 
he believed he could do something. He saw 
that old geography did not know- much, for 
it left things so unsettled about what the 
world was like. 

He also said to himself that away back in 
the Ancient Ages (before the Middle Ages) 
Grecians and Romans knew more and better 
things than people do now. (Remember his 
"now" was in the fifteenth century.) 

He believed, somehow, that those ancients 
were right about the world being like a pan- 
cake, floating on something, or perhaps that it 
was even a globe, although they only guessed 
at it. If they were right it must be proven. 
This great idea grew and grew Avith him. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. CA 

No one knows exactly when it com- 
menced. 

For about one tliousand years (from 47G 
to 1492) tliere had been so little learned 
about anything! Why? 

The Middle Ages are also called Dark Ages. 
Why ? Let us try and find < ut some of these 
" whys/' 

We Avill call the time of this " fall " one 

thousand years b. c, meaning l)y small b. c. 

before Columbus: I do not 

Fall of the Ro= ,,.... ,, 

^ , believe it is irreverent to call 
man Empire. 

it so. You know what large 
B. C. means. For one thousand years b. c, 
it had been a strange, sad time with the 
whole world. The Roman Empire, the 
Csesar^s great Rome, fell all to pieces in 476 
A. D., that is 476 years after Christ, who 
changed all dates. 

When it fell there seemed to l)e great dark- 
ness. All the beauty of art and learning and 
the refinement and civilization of the world 



62 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

were nearly destroyed ; only ruins left! Many 
ruins of this time are now standing in the 
City of Kome. 

The Roman Empire spread nearly all around 
the Mediterranean Sea; the city of Rome was 
the caj)ital, the center of Roman power, so 
when we say Rome, we mean not only this city 
but the empire. Rome, the great, had now lost 
its hold, especially over its " West." The 
West then did not mean our AVest out here in 
the great, broad lands, but it meant the west 
end of the Mediterranean Sea. Spain used to 
be called Hispania, a word meaning " the outer 
edge." Spain was thought to be the west 
edge of the world, because peoj^le had no 
idea how big the world was. So West, b. c, 
was the western end of the Mediterranean 
Sea, and on up along France, and the British 
Isles. 

Although this great Roman j)Ower had ruled 
nearly everything, even Palestine, Jesus' own 
countr}^, yet it fell. It had the greatest and 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 63 

best laws the world had yet seen, except those 
of Moses, and they had governed only the 
little country of Palestine, and had been wi'it- 
ten 1500 years B. C, The Romans were the 
first people to build roads. They built great 
stone theaters, too. One was the Coliseum, 
whose ruins still stand; I fancy you have 
seen pictures of it. They hmlt great build- 
ings for holding their meetings, great porches, 
great arches, gateways with writings cut in 
them telling of great battles, and there they 
are standing yet, but Rome herself fell. 

She fell because she grew so rich and ripe! 

She fell because she could no longer with her 

riches bless the world. God seems 

_ to have a way of lettinp; thino-s a:o 

Rome Fall ? . . "^ 5 6 8 

to pieces if they do not do this. 
Rome could not bless the world any more, be- 
cause as her people grew richer they became 
very vain and good-for-nothing. Heroism 
died out after the Caesars, and the first thing 
the great power knew, there came a lot of 



64 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND, 

brave, ignorant, wild people, barbarians, who 

ruined all Ler finery. 

Nobody can tell exactly where all these 

hordes of people came from. They are 

^. ^ . . always called " The barba- 

The Barbarians. '' 

rians." They came from the 
north somewhere, and, anxious for fine things, 
they took possession of all they liked. What 
they did not like they utterly destroyed. So 
a condition of hopelessness fell over everything 
and the world's " Dark Ages " came on. 

The barbarians were not quite like our wild 
Indians, yet they were not unlike them. In 
your school readers and histories you will read 
about them, for it was a wonderful one thou- 
sand years in which they ruled, and the world 
Avill always talk about them. These people 
were not all alike. They were in tribes, in 
droves. Some were called Huns, some were 
Teutons, some were Goths, Vandals, and so 
on. I cannot stop to tell you much al)out 
them, only to say that they were brave and 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 05 

igiioraDt aud had none of tlie weaknesses of 
civilization. 

There were thousand and thousands of these 
barbarians and they kept coming in droves for 
hundreds of years. 

Rome, you see, was cultivated and beautiful 
but the people had grown lazy and weak. 
These fresh, free hordes of men who loved 
lawless liberty, were sti'ong. They had lib- 
erty, but no law or order, hence they never 
had learned anything. The Romans had law 
but no liberty, and they were weak though 
they had learned much. 

Do you see here are two great things coming 
right up against each other — Law and Lib- 
erty? These two things had to learn to live 
together: and the world grew dark while this 
was being learned. The hordes were accus- 
tomed to rule themselves. They knew noth- 
ing about kings and emperors and laws. 
Rome could not stand before them and she 



0,C) COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

lost control of things; and all this happened 

in tiie fifth century — one thousand years h. c. 

A strange kind of government just then 

made itself up out of the civilized ideas of 

^ Home and the wild, free notions 

Feudal 

Government. "^^ *^^^ barbarians. It is called 
Feudal government. " Feud " 
means the right to a piece of land. Instead 
of the king or some ruler owning all the coun- 
try, each man had the right to a piece of land. 
He paid a fee for this right, so that each feud 
meant somethino; like fee. Then each man 
who was the head of a family could own his 
own land. After awhile, a man would have 
to fight some other man to keep him off that 
land (for he could n't put the land into his 
pocket) so feud came really to mean fight. 
' We cannot stop to find out all about feu- 
dalism, of course, but it is interesting to 
know al)out, since it was tlie time of knight 
errantry, chivalry and ever so many interest- 
ing things. The most important feature of 



COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUIS'D. 67 

feudalism was its idea of a freehold on land. 
About tlie year 800 A. D., things began to 
settle down somewhat after those dreadful 
lightings and wars. The free men began to 
get rich. Families grew powerful, some more 
so than others, but they did not learn any- 
thing until the time when there came an 

emperor by the name of Char- 
ar emagne. 2^^^,^^^^^^ ^^^ -^^ ^qq j^ jy ^qqq 

b. c.) began to build schools and start the 
world to doing something besides eating 
and drinking. 

The people had no thought, no books, no 
morals, but just dug in the ground and played 
and fought. They robbed each other as any 
other animals would: but the great thing 
that was coming into the world was a sort 
of freedom. 

This was eight hundred years after C^hrist 
came into the world and His truth was 
only beginning to be felt as a power. Char- 
lemagne had a dim notion that the people 



08 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

should l)e leariiiug sometliing. The school 
at Pavia, which Columbus attended six hun- 
dred years after, was one that he founded. 
His numerous daughters made copies from 
the old classical writings and people began 
to chano-e ao-ain from barbarism to civil- 
ization. Charlemagne himself was so fond 
of study that he used to study while he 
ate his diunei", after he was a grown man 
and an emperor. 

The old classical learning thus crept back 
into life. It had nearly been destroyed, you 
see, save that which was stored in monas- 
teries or hustled off to Alexandria. Chris- 
tianity, also, began to creep into those dark 
Middle Ages in Charlemagne's time. Gree^ 
and Roman learning came back but theii 
pagan religion did not. 

Just think what a poor, strange notion the 

people had al)out this new kind 

The Church. . v • i? ^ ^ l- 

or religion tor a long, long time. 

There had l)een great religions in the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 69 

world before. The Romans and Greeks had 
imaginary gods sitting around on top of high 
mountains and in the sky, who ruled like 
mighty kings over all their wars, their seas, 
their agriculture. But they had no thought 
that any God ruled by love alone. 

They thought gods must, of course, rule 
by power. And it is no wonder that when 
the new religion came into the world during 
these dark times, people supposed somehow 
it was to be a religion of power or it was 
of little good, so the Christian church strove 
to be a power, and it was. 

The first real Christians like Peter and 
John and Paul, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, 
Origeu, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Augus- 
tine — big names, but never mind — did not 
suppose Christianity to be a thing of pom- 
pous power, but later Christians did. The 
early Christians were great in being gentle, 
not powerful. 

But old gods, to be good for anything had 



70 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

to be powerful, so, of course, it was liumaii 
to try to have Christianity a great power. 
And do you know people were forced into 
being Christians! When a great king came 
to be a Christian then he made all his 
people profess to be Christians. 

So the Church of the lowly, loving Jesus 
came to be the greatest power on earth. It 
even made kings kneel down to the Popes. 
The Pope represented God on the earth. 
God, of course, owned the earth, they said, 
for He made it; then if the Pope was God's 
representative he must be the one who 
o\vned the land really, instead of anybody 
else, and people came to pay the Pope the 
fees for land. Columbus' most important 
permission to discover new land came from 
the Pope. 

The Church grew to be so jjowerful that 
by the time Columbus was l^orn all Europe 
belonged to it. 

All this time of the Dark Ages, then, the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 71 

" Light of the World " was coming in, and 
although Christians at first made this mis- 
take of honestly trying to rule the world as 
they thought God would rule it, by power, 
yet it was better Light than any before, for 
there was much love in it. Pagan religion 
had had none at all. 

People were ready to die or to do any- 
thing for this Christ whom they loved, and 

oh! how they rejoiced when 
The Crusaders. 

they heard He was coming to 

the earth again. The people had no Bibles 
to read, so they believed only what the 
priests told them. It is no wonder, then, 
that the priests got up some very queer 
things, so as to make the people obey them. 
They would read the Scriptures to them. 
They taught the people that Christ was com- 
ing back to the earth again when one thou- 
sand years from the time he first came had 
gone by, so in this tenth century, 1000 A. D., 
they began to look for Him. 



72 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Peter the Hermit preached everywhere 
telling this, and, filled with delight, millions 
and millions of these people we have been 
talking abont, commenced climbing over the 
mountains and wading the rivers, going to 
Jerusalem, down at the east end of the pre- 
cious sea, to meet Him. Peter said Jeru- 
salem was where Jesus was crucified and it 
was where He would come again. So men, 
women and children, for two hundred years 
kept going to and from Jerusalem to see 
Jesus. 

We are talking about centuries of time 
and millions of people: remember how great 
this all is. It will help you in all your 
studies of history and geograj^hy hereafter. 

Now this going to and fro for so many 
years from Spain, France, England, Italy, 
and other countries, to Jerusalem, made a 
great change in Europe. Why? It was not 
because they found Christ at Jerusalem, for 
they were disappointed in that; it was not 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 73 

because tliey got into so many fights as they 
did when they got there, and found the 
Saracens had possession of Jerusalem (re- 
member this, for Columbus tried to do some- 
thing about it); but it made wonderful 
changes in Europe because it started the 
people moving around and finding out 
things about others besides themselves. So 
you see what there was left of civilization, 
what there was of learning and goodness, 
commenced again to grow when people 
moved about and thought. 

Now all this was called " Crusading," 
and it was what made Genoa and Venice 
grow so fast in the tenth and eleventh 
centuries. People got very tired of going 
by land, so they went by water, instead. 
Genoa and Venice lay at the heads of two 
points of water not very far apart from 
each other, where travelers could take a 
vessel. Therefore great rivalry sprang up 
between these two powers. Each worked 



74 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

hard to get the most custom and become 
great in navigation. 

People began to carry goods with them, 
and to trade them off for something else; 
they made money faster tlian 1)y digging in 
the land. This was the beginning of real 
commerce. 

Ah ! Now you see things are ripening. 

Jesus did not come to Jerusalem, but His 
spirit did come to all Europe through this. 
He made people know each other, and some- 
times love each other. The new was really 
commencing, the world was beginning to 
move on. 

In this tenth century the schools grew, the 
church grew, science grew, art grew, and 
commerce grew. This made a great change, 
but rememl)er the change came slowly. 

Marco Polo brought the compass, you 
know, in the twelfth century, and this 
])rought many new ideas into navigation, 
for sailors could now guide their vessels at 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 75 

all times and need not wait for the sun to 
come out in tlie daytime or for tlie moon 
and stars at night. 

I have told you how gunpowder made a 
great change in naval war, in vessels and 
in many ways. The greatest 
change of all, however, next to 
Columbus' discovery, was the thing which 
John Gutenburg found out, that writing 
could be done with something besides a 
man's hand. All books were written by 
hand, and always had been, up to the time 
that Columbus was born. 

It was in Germany that men first found that 
a sort of impression, or imprint, could be 
taken of a lot of wooden letters all at one 
time, if they had ink on them. Then they 
found that a lot of these imprints could be 
made from one surface. And, oh, what a dis- 
covery! What secrets John Gutenburg kept 
to himself! He first used ^vooden letters tied 
together with strings. It ^vas afterwards 



76 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

found that movable metal letters were more 
convenient. 

The Bible was the first l)ook that was 
printed. A man bought a beautiful copy, 
supposing it had been written by hand. Of 
course it cost a great deal of money, for such 
a book was the work of one man's lifetime. 
The owner was very proud of it, for it was 
so beautifully written. He showed it to 
another man and, behold, he had one just 
exactly like it! These surjDrises happening, 
set men to wondering how in the world this 
beautiful, even, clean writing could be done. 
The type imitated writing in Latin and the 
pages had beautiful colored pictures on them 
made by hand, and it was a marvel. 

Do you know there is an original Guten- 
burg Bilde in Chicago? It is the loan of Mr. 
Ellsworth to the Chicago Art Institute, and 
there it lies in a glass case for all to see. It 
is in two volumes; one lies shut and one lies 
open so people may see the outside and the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT ME FOUND. 77 

inside without touching the precious relic. 
Mr. Ellswortli and his friend, E.ev. Mr. Gun- 
saulus, in 1891, heard of this Bible being for 
sale, so they went to New York quite deter- 
mined to buy it for Chicago, and they did, 
paying $14,000. There is but one other cop}- 
in the world. See it if you can, for it is a 
great prize. 

Printing commenced secretly in Germany 
in 1436, and in 1462 it was made known. 
In 1465 printing was done at Paris, Milan, 
Venice and at Rome; it did not reach Eng- 
land until 1474. But just think how slowly 
it grew, after all, for even in 1492, the 
same year that Columbus discovered America, 
there were only sixty printed books in the 
world, that is, sixty different books. Forty- 
four of these books were in England. In 
1500 it is said there were five hundred 
23rinting presses in all Europe, but they were 
clumsy things compared with what we have 
now. 



Y8 COLUMBUS ANi) WHAT HE FOUND. 

The first j^i'inting press in our New AVorld 
came to Mexico in 1586. Fifty years after, 
one was set up at Lima, Soutli America; then 
over fifty years more passed by before one was 
set up at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1(330. 

The first printing press in our AVest was at 
Cincinnati in I7l>8, the next at St. Louis in 
1808. 

So, you see, printing was really a new way 
of getting along, and you can easily see 
what a Avonderful discovery it was, for it lets 
thought and news run through a very wide 
and rapid channel from one end of the earth 
to the other. Before printing came, all 
thought was crowded into very few libraries, 
and it generally stayed there. 

Before Columbus discovered America and 
while people lived only along sea-coasts, the 
Avorld was crowded for room ; Columbus 
was just needed. A man of God, he was 
inspired to find new ground. This land 
around the sea had been trodden on so nianv 



COLUMBUS AND WIIAT HE FOUND. 79 

years, and liad so many old things tumbling 
do^vn on it that the world needed a new con- 
tinent. Columbus did not know all that, he 
just did his own work, and did greater things 
than he knew. 

Now these Middle Ages were dark and 
Ions:. The a2:e before was o-reater in its 
pagan glory, the age since is greatei' in its 
Christian glory; and you can easily un- 
derstand, I think, that the Middle Ages, the 
one thousand years 1). c, was just the sor- 
rowful l)attle time in the world between 
Pagan truth and Christian truth, between 
man-made truth and God's truth. 

You know when a little Christian truth 
comes into your own young hearts it gener- 
ally is T)orn of a little l)attle you have had 
with a falsehood or with a bit of selfishness. 
So it is Avdth the histor}' of Christian truth 
everywhere, in all places and at all times. 

We people are living now in the New 
Time already four hundred years old, and 



80 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

we must l)fc' as true to our Time as others 
have l)een to theirs. We need not make any 
more mistakes, we can see and read and 
write and ride, and can do everything in 
the world we wisli to do, just so it is not 
wrong. 

So h^t the new Colombo boy and girl 
dare to dream and do as truly as Columbus 
did. Light is fully come. Eoom is fully 
come. Learning and goodness are still com- 
ino-. Let us all discover all we can, for the 
VvAit that now is, is neither dark nor pagan. 



V. 

Colombo went to live in Portugal, prob- 
ably, just as young men and young women 
nowadays come to live in eitie?;. AVhether 
it is best and wisest to do so or not, each 
young or old person must decide for himself. 
No preaching on the subject will enlighten 
anyone in particular. AVe only know it was 
like Colombo carefull}' to find out for him- 
self, M'hat was best, and he went in 1470, 
and found Portugal to be the center of life 
in culture and enterprise. The wise Prince 
Heniy had lived twenty years before, and 
his great attention to navigation had made 
it the leading nation in this. 

Colombo seemed to bid farewell to his 
beloved Genoa, as she faded in her glory on 
the waters, and to take up his home "with 
the new life which ])elono;ed to Portuo-al, as 
she spread her sails out in new discoveries. 
Xo other nation was doing anything like it. 



82 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Perhaps Colombo's brotlier Bartholomew 
was already at Lisbon when he came there, 
and was eng-ao-ed in the l)usiuess of makino' 
maps and selling books; at least this is what 
Colombo did, when he came, whether he was 
in partnership with his bi'other or not. He 
made enough money in this book business to 
live, and . to send something to his father, 
for he never forgot liis father; but he prob- 
ably read more of his books than he sold. 

Books were then, of course, great wonders. 
They were yet a very expensive luxury, and 
only the dukes and dignitaries could • afford 
to buy them. Colombo, however, seems to 
have managed to have them to read by 
going into the business himself. 

Colombo probably did not have an ex- 
tended business in this line, for he failed to 

become very I'icli; he seemed 
He Falls in Love. . ' , . i i ij. 

to gravitate to his old lire 

of navigation. He also fell in love with 
an old navigator's daughter, or ratliei-, she 



COLTTMBT'S AND WHAT HE FOUND, 83 

fell first ill love mtli liim. As soon as 
Colombo was a citizen of Lisbon he was an 
attendant at church. This devoted and up- 
right and handsome young Italian with his 
face set toward true thin2:s in a strano:e 
country, was very likely to attract the atten- 
tion of some true young lady, and so he 
did. She was an inmate of the convent, and 
" sought him with such expressions of affec- 
tion that he easily yielded to her charms," 
and they were married. 

The young man probably had other plans 
and heard other voices than the voice of love, 
in his wide outlook upon his manhood, with 
all its grand possibilities in that time and 
place, but he rightfully yielded to a true 
love, and it blessed him. 

One thing we know, it blessed him by 
bringing to him more books and plans on 
navigation. Her father or grandfather (his- 
tory is all mixed up about which he was) had 
been a great Portuguese navigator, Perestrello 



84 COLUMRT'S AND AVTIAT HE FOUND. 

])y name. Her name was Phelipa Moniz Per- 
estrello, with a Dona before it, wliicli meant 
that she was a young lady of rank. Don [ind 
Dona were titles that stood for much in 
Spain and Portugal. 

Columbo seems to have always had a way 
of interesting people of rank. Though he 
was himself l)orn with no rank but that of a 
fine physique and a noble spirit, he always 
ranked rightly with the noble of ])lt)od. He 
naturally belonged to the people of refinement 
and power. 

This young pai]', when married, went with 
lier mother — her father was dead — to live 
away out in the ocean on an island called 
Porto Santo. I told you to rememl)er this 
island, and I hope you have, for it was the 
romantic home of this charming couple. 

There they lived, for it was where the 
bride owned some property, and there 
Coloml)o studied Perestrello's maps and 
plans, and charts (for he was still going- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT II K FOUND. 85 

to school). He Wiis Avliere lie could liear 
and see the latest things going on in Portu- 
guese discoveries, Avhicli were at this time 
most active. The l)eating and the roar of 
the mighty Ocean Sea al)()ut his very home 
in the night and in the day, must have filled 
him with its majesty, and no dou])t he 

„ 2:rew more and more to feel at 

Baby Diego. ^ 

home ^vitll it. A little hoy was 
horn there. His name was Diego, — Don 
Diego he is called in after history. 

Those were peaceful days for Colomho. 
He had enough to live on without niucli 
concern. He studied and talked and loved 
his little family (for he was always passion- 
ately fond of all his family connections), 
while coming to a solid conclusion that the 
mystery of darkness could and must be 
solved. 

About this time, Colombo heard of a man 
by the name of Toscanelli, a man then about 
seventy-seven years old, who lived at Florence, 



8<) COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

Italy. Ill fact a great many people had heard 

of liim, for lie had long before made liimself 

famous, in that slow-going day, hy writing a 

little hook on what he believed the world Avas 

like. He thon2:ht there was a way 
Dr. Paul ^ . . -^ 

rr ,,. to that ^vonderful India in the 

Toscanelli. 

East, not by going east over 
dreadful mountains and long distances, but 
by going west around the world, on water, 
and coming to the East. There lay the water 
toVvard the west, Avliy not try it ? This was 
very startling, for Toscanelli was a great 
scholar. He had really written a letter to 
King Alphonzo, King of Portugal, once upon 
a time, giving his views definitely, and had 
also sent him a map of what he believed the 
West was like. The Portuguese were for 
years greatly excited about it, but the ex- 
citement did n't come to anything after all, 
because nol^ody wanted to try it. 

Colomlx), however, heard about that Tos- 
canelli, and since, as I said before, Colombo 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 87 

set'iiic'd to belong to scholars and to what 
they knew, he dared to write to the great old 
Doctor. He had a fine handwriting always 
(the lack of which has spoiled many a young 
man's good start in the ^vorld), and he could 
write a most interesting letter. He wrote, 
asking Toscanelli for a copy of the letter he 
had heard of, and also for the map which he 
had once sent to the king. It was asking a 
good deal, it seems to me, hut the Doctor 
granted his request and sent them l)oth to 
him, giving his exact calculations. This was 
a great compliment to our sincere and ener 
getic Colombo, for he ^vas only a plain young 
man, as }^et, thinking in the same great lines. 
It was all a most important success for him. 
This same map went with him through all 
his further difficulties and successes, until he 
actually touched our shores ten or fifteen 
years afterward. Uunfortunately, however, 
it was lost after that. 

This map, when Colombo first received it, 



88 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

must have stirred liis blood, for it taught 
exactly what he thought, except that he be- 
lieved the ocean was narrower than Toscan- 
elli planned. It calculated that the earth (if 
round) must be about eighteen thousand 
miles in circumference. You know now it 
is twenty-five thousand miles. How would 
you like to sail out on such a mistake as that? 
But this map suited Colombo the best of any- 
thing he had ever seen. He thought eighteen 
thousand miles to be the circumference, yet 
he l)elieved the continent — nobody supposed 
for a minute there were two continents — took 
up more space than Toscanelli thought it did. 
He believed there was less ocean. Toscanelli 
said the land occupied about two -thirds of 
the circumference. Here is an example in 
fractions: — two-thirds of eighteen thousand 
miles = twelve thousand miles. He thought 
that must l)e the size of the land on the earth, 
which, you see, left six thousand miles of 
water. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 89 

Colombo thought the unknown waters were 
not so wide and that the land was much 
wider, and this was the best geography the 
world had, until Columbus solved the mys- 
tery. No wonder it helped to break up those 
awful Dark Ages. 

There were other great men and things 
helping him on, you know. About this 
time, Colombo had some corre- 
spondence with the g-rent 2:enius, 
Da Vinci. ^ ... 

Leonardo Da Vinci, who was inter- 
ested in more different things than almost any 
other person who ever lived. From being the 
inventor of the wheelbarrow to painting some 
of the greatest pictures in the world, his mind 
was one which allowed nothing to escape him. 

So, in great art galleries, when you see 
pictures by Da Vinci, just remember that he 
had a good word to j)ut into Colombo^s head 
about that western way to the East. 

The astrolabe was an instrument with which 
men measured the height of the sun from the 



90 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

horizon, at this time, and it, as well as the 
compass, enabled men to cut loose and sail 
out of sight of land. 

The years were going by with Colombo, 
and these facts tempted him more and more 
to try the deep — while very few others 
thought anything about it. 

He sailed often on the Guinea coast. Per- 
haps he made the trip to Iceland at this time. 

He was a graydiaired man when l)ut 

thirty years old. It is said " his whole 

, countenance had an air of 
Appearance of 

^ , _. authority." He must have 

Columbo. "J 

had a most striking appear- 
ance, for he had large blue eyes, was very 
erect and tall; and to have an air of authority 
along with gray hairs, and all that with a 
disposition " engaging and affable," and to be 
simple in diet and dress — this makes a com- 
bination most rare. 

It is not surprising, however, that ^ve have 
no portrait of Columbus— only as some one 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. [)l 

has imagined liim to appear — for the world 
was only theu beginning to paint portraits. 
Of course only great people liad them, and 
painters never thought (^f Colombo being 
great. 

Remember, also, that not until 1839 
were pictures " taken " by any 2>i'f>cess ex- 
cej)t by painting. Now we have them for 
a few dollars a dozen. 

Colombo was simple in dress, when gor- 
geousness was the fashion; not self-indulgent 
in eating or drinking, when that has always 
been the fashion — these thino-s mark him a 
hero, in the l^eginning; though his poverty, 
like many another person's, may have greatl}' 
aided his heroism. 

Our Colombo gradually rose in life, in spite 
of all his difficulties — perhaps it would ])e 
better to say he rose by them, for if a charac- 
ter is great enough to " stand the strain of 
life" at all, God generally makes more char- 
acter by more strain, until He has one to be 



92 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

depeuded upon. Boys know" liow this is 
when they want to make more muscle. It is 
by exercise. This character that was being 
formed at Portugal in those years of strain and 
trial, tlirough much exercise of discouragement 
and encouragement, rising and falling, was the 
very character God could depend upon when 
it came to the test in after years. 

His maps did n't pay very well but he some- 
how could approach kings, and Avrite to great 
painters and great doctors and have great 
schemes. He had risen, at last, to where he 
succeeded in having his plan carefully laid 
])efore King Jolin of Portugal. 

This most cultivated and learned nation in 

navigation, this center of much new learning, 

Avhere Colombo had struo-o-led to 

ing on y^^^^ j^^, twelve or fifteen years, 

now faced its chance for life, 
but ho^v little it dreamed it had any- 
thinfj; to learn from this self-tau2:ht Genoese? 
We do not know many particulars about 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 93 

it all, only that King John did give enough 
attention to it once upon a time, to appoint 
a lot of men to look into the matter and 
decide. Colombo was asked to loan them 
his charts and plans so that the Council 
might l)etter understand exactly what his 
scheme was, and before he received them 
again they had secretly sent a caravel out 
into the deep to see how this very vision- 
ary notion might work. 

They found out nothing, of course, because 
Colombo himself was not along, and the very 
wise (?) Council reported Colombo's plans 
a great failure. Now just think!' They had 
as much, and a great deal more, than Co- 
lombo, to go by. They had Toscanelli's ideas. 
They had done a great deal of discovering 
before. They had vessels and money and 
men and experience, but all that did not 
make a character strong enough to " get 
there." No, they reported it all a failure — - 
and were not ashamed of doing so. 



94 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

But ColoDil)o, instead of feeling mortified 
and discouraged, and giving up Lis scheme, 

though he was in debt and alone, 

Colombo 1,1 1 1 i 

seemed to be only more deter- 
Leaves 

r, ^ , mined. He was now sure he kne^v 
Portugal. 

more about it than they all, and 
the next we hear of him he has quietly left 
Lisbon. 

Whether he leaves because they make 
such sport of him or whether it is because 
he is much in debt and has to leave, we do 
not know. We can only learn that he went 
without people knowing where or when. 
But there is' one sure thing, the next King 
of Portugal very politely asked him, in 
after years, to come back again, and said 
that everything should be made right, and 
that they might give him what he wanted. 
But it was too late then. 

Colombo took his little boy (and he nuist 
have packed up the map, too) and went away. 
The loving young wife, with whom he liad 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 1)5 

shared a home so happily, had j)robably 
died. 

It must have been a sad l)reaking up of 
his fond dreams of what the Poi*tuguese were, 
and of what they coiihl do. They were 
making such great discoveries down the 
African coast and everywhere close to 
shore — and were the only nation doing such 
things — and if Colomh<^ had been made of 
weaker stuff, his heart ^vould have broken, 
and he would have died (for he could n't 
give it up) and that would have been all. 

Then my story would have ended here. 
Instead of that, just think what he did! 
He was so sure of his great thought, that 
he only felt sorry and angry with Portugal 
because she was to be left out of this great 
plan. He slipped off alone. 

How little it appeared to be that ^vay ! 
How it took a great soul to know it ! So 
it is now and always has been. Only the 
gi'eat of faith have eyes to see things as they 



96 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

really are. The rest of the world follow 
some leader iu a round ring, like little chil- 
dren at a game of some sort, while those 
who know something can be done, and must 
l)e done, just go and do it. 

These are the noble of God's world, who 
reach so far into the unknown that they 
have no other hand to lead them but God's 
hand. God made it all and knows it all, 
and it will not do to ask men much about 
it, sometimes. 

So Columbus felt that Portugal was left 
forlorn and alone, and so she was, Avhen he 
left her himself; but he took with him 
all that Portugal could give him, and that 
which Portugal knew about discovery, and 
his maps and his little boy. 



VI. 

After Portus^al was left by Columbus, what 
did he do? He never gave up, but only 
wondered ^vhat other nation under the sun 
^vould undertake the great business that he 
knew must be done. 

No other nation knew as much about dis- 
covery as did Portugal, so it w^as with him 
a most solemn question as to what next he 
should do and where next he should go. 
This is probably the time when he sent his 
brother Bartholomew to England to offer his 
project to Henry VH. 

We know his brother went to England at 
some time on this errand, and stayed so 

long — earning his living, no 
England's 

doubt, while trying; to interest 
Chance. ' *^ ^ 

somebody — that when he returned, 
Columbus had already gone for the second 
time under Spain. There were no newsj)apers 

97 



98 COLUMBUS AND WHAT IIK FOT^XD. 

in those days, to tell all tlie news, so it must 
liave been a great surprise to liiiu to find 
Columhus gone, for it is said lie liad witli 
Mm a favoral)le proposition from King Henry 
VII. of England. 

Perhaps Golumlnis Avent to his oAvn city 
of Genoa at this time, to ask the Genoese to 
undertake it, l3ut all is uncertainty as to 
exactly when Columbus gave England and 
Genoa the grand opportunity to carry out 
his j)hin. 

He thought of France, no doubt, at this 
time, for France was a strong power, now 
under Louis XL, and had Genoa by the 
neck, but France was not the nation to un- 
dertake a thing like this for she had done 
nothing in the way of discovery. 

In those days of little acquaintance between 
nations, and wdien news and gossip traveled 
slowly, Columbus proliably kilew little about 
the real disposition of any country until he 
had lived in it. He was utterly alone. He 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 99 

was "a man without a country,'' that k, lie 
was really not at home in any of them. He 
was, indeed, the first American, for he '^vas 
related to all countries. He was an Italian, 
that is, a Genoese, and Genoa had con ^ to 
1)6 quite French ; he had adopted Portugal as 
his home, and he wa; thus a part of those 
three countries. It yet remains for me to 
tell you of how he became related to Spain, 
and finally to America. 

AVhen he became a Spaniard in order to 
gain grer.t Spain, how little she realized that 
she gained more than he did. 

Nothing is known of his wanderings, at 
first, l:>ut it is found that he came into Spain 
and laid all his plans before two large- 
hearted, wealthy Spanish noblemen, who, in 
some way, entertained him as their guest for 
tw^o years. They were the Duke of Medina 
Sidonia, and the Duke of Medina Cell, 

They lived down on the southern coast of 
Spain, directly south of Portugal, facing the 



100 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

great ocean. They were immensely wealthy, 
and they must have been much pleased with 

the princely Columbus, though 

The Dukes of n i i i • i i 

all he had was a princely i)lan 
Sidonia and . i. . i 

„ .. and a little boy. They, at least, 

treated him royally, and finally 
at the end of two years, gave him a letter of 
introduction to their Queen — Isabella, the 
Queen of Spain. This is how Columl:)us 
iirst came to know this important person. 

These noblemen thought very seriously 
about undertaking the voyage for themselves, 
as they were well able, l)nt they finally 
concluded it was a matter of too great im- 
portance, and that it shouhl l)e done l\y a 
nation instead of by private persons, for 
Columbus had them well under the influence 
of his enthusiasm, you see. They wrote 
to the Queen that they, themselves, had 
thouo-ht of fittino; Columbus out for his 
voyage, but that in case of important dis- 
coveries, only some monarch Avould be able 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 101 

to command the countries found. Yet they 
wished to keep an interest in the Imsiness 
and have some of the good of it. 

All this introduction to the Queen and 
King of Spain ^vas pushed right along after 
the dukes gave up carrying out the plan 
themselves. Columbus had made up his 
mind to go to France, but the dukes could 
not let this opportunity to do something 
great in discovery pass from their own coun- 
try; they must have Avritten a very interest- 
ing letter to the Queen about Columbus, in 
order to have it interest her so much as 
it did, and at a time when she must have 
been one of the most occupied persons in 
the world. 

She was a young mother of young chil- 
dren, and had much to take up her mind 
in managing her wily husband — whom she 
always loved and served in the highest 
sense. She was also so absorbed in manag- 
ing her realm in the fear of God, that she 



102 ('('LJ'MBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

sometimes had to lead armies herself. How 
could she stop to l)ecome acquainted Avith 
a Avaiidering stranger, ^v\i]\ f< most strange 
scheme? But she did, and lequested that 
he be presented to her. It was a most 
unfortunately busy time, however. 

Before we go any farther we must know 

something about Isabella and Ferdinand, 

and about Spain — for you will 

see plenty of Spanish relations at 

our great AVorkVs Fair party. 

Isabella, next to Columbus himself, is the 
most important relative we have. 

Isal)ella and Ferdinand ^veve at Cordova 
A hen Columbus first came to them. Look 
a the map and see what journey he and 
h ' little T)oy took, bearing the important 
le ;er of introduction. (Some Avriters say 
C( umbus was iirst introduced to the King 
an Queen of Spain l)y Perez, tlie Prior of 
the Convent of La Pal)ida, but this is a mis- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 103 

take. This interesting introduction through 
Perez came later.) 

When Colunil)ns first saw Queen Isabella, 
she was about thirty-four years of age. 
She was a very beautiful woman, and a 
very Queen, indeed. 

She was a descendant of John of Gaunt, 
through both her parents, and was a woman 
of very strong character. This showed itself 
to be true when she was but a young girl, 
thirteen years old. Her father, King John 
II., of Castile, had died when she was three 
years old, leaving his crown to Henry, his 
son, who was only a half-brother to Isabella, 
and who was old enough to have daughters 
of his OAvn. Then there was another brother, 
so there was little chance that she would 
ever be Queen, yet her hand was sought in 
marriage, when she was but eleven years 
old, for Ferdinand, Prince of Aragon, whom 
she did finally marry, after many difficulties, 
at eighteen years of age. Instead of becom- 



104 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

ing betrothed to Ferdinand at eleven years 
of age, she was betrothed to his brother 
Carlos, who was forty years old. Fortunately, 
he died, and then in a year she was betrothed 
to another man; but the young miss refused 
to be bestowed in this manner, upon any 
one, without consulting " the nobles of the 
realm." Many things stirred the people 
against the king, her half-brother, who was 
not a good man, and they raised an army 
to have his brother made king, instead. So 
Henry then thought he could straighten out 
matters by having Isabella marry a horrible 
old man by the name of Don Pedro Girou. 
Isabella was very miserable about this, ])ut 
the betrothal was made. She said she would 
not marry him, but that she should j)lunge 
a dag-erer into his heart if she was forced to 
do so. (She was now l)ut fifteen years old, 
and had been betrothed three times to men 
whom she hated.) But in spite of her threat, 
Grand Master Don Pedro was on his way to 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 105 

be married to her when he suddenly died. 
Is it not rather remarkable how this lovely, 
brave young woman was thus saved to become 
the wife of the man she so loved always! 

After this last man died, the king's brother 
died, the one whom the people were striving 
to have take the crown from Henry. So 
they now offered to fight to have young 
Isabella, the half-sister, made Queen. 

She said, " No, she would not be Queen 
of Castile until it was her right and duty 
to be Queen," but she and the f)^ople forced 
old Henry to sign an agreement that she 
should be heir to the crown instead of his 
own children (who really were not heirs), 
and also an agreement that she should have 
the right to choose her own husband. 

So she finally lived in peace, and at 
eighteen, she chose young Ferdinand of 
Aragon to be her husband, but they had 
an exciting time getting married in secret, 
for old Henry, who paid .no attention to 



10() COLTTMHTTS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

liis a<j;r('('iii('iit, luid an army trying to pre- 
vent tlie wedding. lie failed, and died 
soon after. Tlien Isabella was really Queen 
of Castile and Leon. Ferdinand agreed, 

when he married her, that she 
Queen it, 'mi 

should retain all her sovereiijiity. 
at Last. ^ -^ 

This Avas a most important mat- 
ter, later, when Isabella became interested 
in our Columbus. 

Isabella was a devout Christian, and had 
a most loving and tender heart; all her bitter, 
unnatural duties finally l)roke her heart, for 
she died when oidy fifty-three years old, 
haviuii: lived and IovcmI throu2;h crreat wars 
and family anxieties. But she was always 
cheerful and lovely in character and in 
person. She is described as being very 
beautiful in form and face; of medium 
lieight, with fair complexion; her hair of 
a bright chestnut c(dor, inclining to red, 
and mild 1)1 ue eyes beaming \vith intelli- 
gence and sensibility. She ^vas exceedingly 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 107 

Ixviutiful — " Tlic liaiidsomest lady," says one 
of lier lioiisehold, " whom I ever beheld, 
and the most gracious in nnmners." 

" She was dignified and modest, even to a 
degree of reserve. She early imbibed a 
relish for letters, in which she was superior 
to Ferdinand." At the same time we read 
of her playfulness, and joy in recreation 
Avith her family as they grew into young 
manhood and womanhood, which sometimes 
quite troubled the very pious advisers that 
she had. Her influence as a Queen and a 
mother has been felt in the whole world, 
2^erhaps as no other one woman's ever has 
l)een. Queen Elizabeth was great as a 
Queen, l^ut not as a woman; she, also, bad 
very much to do with settling this New 
World, and is one of our relatives, but 
Isabella was not only Queen, but the 
mother of beautiful Queens; one of them 
was the good Queen Catherine of Eng- 
land. She had five children ; the two 



108 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

eldest, Isabella and Jiiau, the most prom- 
ising and gifted of the family, died as they 
reached mature life, instead of li^^ng to 
carry out the greatness of Spain, which 
Ferdinand and Isabella had so wisely 
begun. 

I have introduced you to Isabella and 
What Made Ferdinand, so now an intro- 
Spain. duction to Spain comes next. 

Castile and Leon Avere married to Aragon, 
you see, when Isabella married Ferdinand. 
This young King and Queen were very 
active and soon added more provinces to 
their kingdom. That is what made Spain. 

They felt their great mission in the world 
was to use their combined power to convert 
the world to the church, at least, to convert 
all in their own domain. The church, to 
them, was the power of God in the world. 
If this was true, then it was supposed to 
be their duty either to convert everybody 
or to drive them out of the country, for 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 109 

God was the ruler, and all must obey Him. 
So they carried on those terrible " pious 
wars " against the Moors and against the 
Jews, and dealt most severely with all who 
doubted the church. 

It was a most sickening piece of business, 
and one which finally, it seems to me, broke 
Isabella's heart. 

The Inquisition was revived during their 
reign, and hundreds of thousands were tort- 
ured to death for not believing in the 
church. It was all because the world had 
not yet learned that God was Love. It was 
supposed that God only ruled by power 
and blood, and they had not yet learned 
the rule of love. We must not judge too 
harshly, for we do not yet know much 
about love, ourselves. 

Spain was coming to her greatest glory, 
and ^vas ending her wars triumphantly, about 
the time she came to know our Columbus. 
Isabella and Ferdinand had been married 



110 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

about twenty years, and tliey had encour- 
aged art and literature, and reformed laws 
and had governed their united realm with 
wonderful wisdom and power. Spain was 
the greatest nation of Europe at this time. 
She was not so cultivated as Portugal, nor 
so advanced in discovery and in learning, 
but she was greatest in size, and in power 

to conquer the world. And now, 
Spain in . .^ n . 

lust as the liercest wars were 
Her Glory. -^ , . 

going on with the Moors, when 

Isabella herself had sometimes to Avear a 
soldier's suit and command armies, while 
Kino; Ferdinand was in command somewhere 
else; and just as they were beginning to 
believe they would finally conquer, and 
when the court, with all its splendid array, 
was sort of camping around through the 
domain of Spain, there came a poor man 
with a letter of introduction from some- 
])ody, about a plan of his which Portugal 
had tried and believed worth nothing. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. Ill 

"What!" said everybody, "does that 
fellow suppose this whole grand time of 
triumphs, marchings and music, is all going 
to stop, so he may have a chance to make 
himself glorious? No, indeed!" 

Yes, it was a most sad time for a man like 
Columbus to put in an appearance with any- 
thing on hand but to help light the Moors. 
The Moors, the Moors must go! The relig- 
ion of Christ must triumph! That was the 
business of the world just then. 

And Columljus himself was such a loyal 

son of the church that he did not doubt that 

was true. He loved the church 

Columbus 111 

. , and wanted to see the church 
and the 

Church conquer. He asked no questions 
about theology but took theology 
as he found it. He felt the church to be 
the all -glorious and beautiful hope of God in 
the ^vorld. He believed in obeying God, if 
it took his life, and he was ready to lay down 
his life for the truth as he understood it. 



112 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Sometime, during his six years' waiting upon 

tlie court of Spain, Columbus seems to have 

found a new wife. Her 
Beatrix Enriquez. _ . . 

name was Jieatriz Jiinriquez. 

She was young and very beautiful and of a 
nol)le family. Her brothers were always 
good friends to Columbus, and finally went 
on the great voyage. 

Another little boy was born ; his name was 
Fernando, and he was a dear son along with 
Diego. He it was who grew up to be a 
very scholarly man and wrote his father's 
history. 

Columbus, while waiting for Isabella and 
Ferdinand to make up their minds as to 
Avhat they should do for him, joined the 
army and helped to fight the Moors. He 
lieard how they held that wonderful holy 
city of Jerusalem, the very place where 
Christ was crucified, and he heard how 
Queen Isabella had embroidered a most 
beautiful veil with her own hands, to be 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 113 

sent to the lioly place as soon as it was 
taken from the Moors, and all these things 
made him more and more snre that some 
day, Grod wonld have control of this whole 
world. It would seem that just such a King 
and Queen ought to rule this woidd for 
God. 

While waiting and hoping that Isabella 
and Ferdinand would come to help him 
get hold of the whole New World for God, 
he would sometimes become dreadfully dis- 
couraged, but they still put him off, saying 
they would try to hear all about his plan 
some other time. 

Once they said, " Yes, we will have this 
thing seen to," and one winter up at Sala- 
manca, where there were a great 
Council of __ . ., , 

University and a g-reat many 
Salamanca. . 

learned and wise men, and where 

the Queen was spending the winter, they 
concluded they would give this Columbus a 
chance to tell his story, and would have a 



114 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Council called to examiue liim and really 
settle this matter. 

But Talavera was confessor to the Queen, 
and he had his mind jnade up that it Avas 
foolish for the Queen to be so interested 
in a crazy man, a man ^vho was about fifty 
years old, and who had so far failed in life; 
and as she was so very conscientious and 
careful always to obey her God through 
her confessor, it is a great wonder indeed 
that she had such strong, natural, Avomanly 
sense as to think anything at all about 
Colunil)Us. 

But Talavera got up the Council of Sala- 
manca, and, of course, he called a Council 
that suited himself, and for several years it 
would not say yes or no. There happened 
to be one or two men in it, however, ^vho 
held on to the hope that the woi-ld might 
be round, and that Columbus might be 
right; yet, at last, it gave the decision that 
the whole scheme was '' xaiu, impracticable, 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 115 

and resting on grounds too weak to merit 
the support of tlie government." 

THs sounds very grand and dignified. 
Poor Queen Isabella and Columbus; they 
must have wondered if it could be possible 
that they were only dreamers and schemers, 
and that "the great Council was all-wise! 

How sad to be so mistaken! How sorry 
the Queen must have been for the noble 
and handsome hero, whom she felt in her 
heart was wiser than all the confessors and 
wise men. 

Two men of the Council supported the 
scheme — Cardinal Mendoza, and the Arch- 
bishop of Seville. They were both important 
men. They managed to have the King and 
Queen answer Columbus that, " although 
they were too much occupied at present to 
embark in his undertaking, yet at the con- 
clusion of the war, they ^vould find both 
time and inclination to treat Avith him." 

This is carefully said. They do not say 



116 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

they'll find time and inclination to under- 
take for liim, but time and inclination to 
" treat with him." 

So, after six years' waiting, fighting, and 
living, sometimes upon the Queen's money, 
and sometimes without any money, Columbus 
concludes if this is all he has gained, he will 
leave Spain, just as he left Portugal, and find 
out again, " what next." 




VII. 



How bitterly the discussions all came up 
again, about the world being round, for these 
Churchmen attacked Colon (let us call our 
hero Colon for a little while, for this was his 
name in Spanish) on Scriptural ground. 
To say the world was i-ound, was to say the 
Bilile was not true. The Bible said a great 
deal about the four corners of the earth, and 
about the sea being spread out as molten 
glass, etc., etc.; how could the sea be flat 
and yet round ? 

None of these things puzzled Colon. His 

scientific turn of mind did not see things as 

they appeared. In his inherent greatness he 

could see farther than they in their learned 

greatness. He could feel man's smallness 

and God's greatness, and that God might 

have made a ball so big that when he put 

117 



118 COLTMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

little man on it there was no up nor down 
to it, if only man and beast, and Avater, and 
everything else stayed on it; that was all 
the " down " there was to anything con- 
nected with the great round earth. So he 
was not woi-ried about anything of that 
kind, or about the Bible either. He was 
only troubled about unlearning some of 
their learning. 

Colon left the court folks and started for 
France at last, in good earnest. He and his 

son Diego next appeared at 

The Convent of ,i ^ j? j. i • i 

the gate or a convent, wnich 

La Rabida and ."" , . 

^ received its name rrom some 

Juan Perez. 

miraculous claim in its very 
early day, of having cured the dreadful 
disease of hydrophobia. Our Lady of the 
Madness was its patron saint. 

It has been a most jnizzling matter as to 
when this visit to the convent was made. 

AVe have adopted the theory of the later 
writers — who , must all necessarily go to 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 119 

Navarrete, and to the testimony of Fernan- 
dez in tlie famons lawsuit, — that this is the 
first visit which Columbus made to the con- 
vent, with a " little l)oy," and " in distress." 
From all that can be gathered, it is 
thought that this " little boy " was about 
twelve years old. 

It was situated in a lovely spot, and here 
^vas where Juan Perez had retired from 
this same court, disgusted, or at least, tired 
of court life. 

• He had been confessor to the Queen, and 
yet without airs or self-glory al^out that, he 
lived here so plainly and simply that he had 
plenty of time and heart to hear all that 
this stranger with the " little boy " had to 
tell him about his mission in the Avorld. 

How sweetly God plans things sometimes! 
This ex-confessor to the Queen had much less 
to do with the powers at the court at pres- 
ent, than the confessor Talavera, and he had 
learned to live without any of its dazzling 



120 COLUMBUS AND WHAT UK FOUND. 

glory, a true, simple life ^v'liere lie could do 
most good; yet how sweet and just like true 
thiugs, tliat seem to happen sometimes, for 
him, instead of Talavera, really to be the 
one who, at last, should win the Queen to 
her decision. 

It Avas this way. Colon was hungry, and 
poor, and alone, indeed. His little boy 
must have something to eat, and Colon knew 
about the hospitalit}^ of the convents, which 
were situated here and there in the coun- 
try, so he ^vent to La Rabida and asked 
for bread and water. 

Juan Perez saAV that he was entertaining 

a man of great genius. In a little while 

he was all awake to what 
Garcia 

^ . seemed to him to be a very 

Fernandez. •^ 

important matter. He soon 
found a learned young man Avho helped 
to talk over this wonderful scheme ^vith 
Columbus. This young man\s name was 
Garcia Fernandez— he was the villaire doc- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 121 

tor. The village was only down the hill 
from the convent and no doubt these 
three had a grand and exciting visit 
together, very soon. 

At last — at last, Colon had found some one 
who would listen to him without thinking 
he was crazy. This Convent dedicated to 
Our Lady of the Madness seems to have 
been the only spot on earth where this 
man, accused of madness, had a chance to 
lay his head. 

Real friendliness at last grasped Columbus 
by the hand and opened its heart to do 
anything in the world that could be done. 

They talked and planned and figured up 
all the knowledge they could get together, 
as fast as possible, for Colon, Av^ho was 
now fifty -seven years old, was so deter' 
mined to go to France that no time was 
to be lost. 

Between them they commanded a great 
deal of learning, for it was the kind that 



122 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

was real, and the kind that could 
tlirive away oif there in the country by 
the Sea, 1)y itself; it was not that sort 
which paraded itself on nothing, in great 
councils and liefore great folks. Garcia 
Fernandez and Juan Perez had plenty of 
books and knew them. They ^vere men 
who looked out of their own eyes straight 
into that sincere man's eyes who had 
dreamed his dream so long, and had also 
seen through his own eyes all his life; so 
tliey three, together, saw something mighty. 

No^v there were tAvo other wonderful pairs 
of seeing eyes in the world, about this same 
time, who felt just what these men thought. 
These were Isal)ella's and those of her best 
friend, the Marcliioness Moya. 

Perez knew them well, not as court ladies, 
but as women. He had known the Queen 
most intimately, and he knew he commanded 
her highest respect, and that anything he 
might chance to choose, she would, in her 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 123 

wisdom, believe was the best choice. So 

what do you think! Juan Perez l)orrowed 

a mule of a man by the name 
The Mid= , ^ ^ , ' ^ 

. . ^. . ot Juan Kodesquez, antl started 
night Ride. ^ ' 

at midnisfht to o-o two hundred 
miles to see the Queen, expecting to change 
her mind, after all that had been done. 

This is the kind of desperate earnestness 
that moves somethins; when it starts out 
to do it. Here was a plain man, superior 
of a country convent, hoping to do that 
which some of the greatest people in the 
realm had failed to do, and that was to 
win the court to favor this project. 

He started at midnight so as not to arouse 
the suspicions of this little gossipy town of 
Palos, and because "he was in the greatest 
haste. 

Colon waited at the convent, wondering, 
indeed, Avhat next, and he must have actu- 
ally rested as he had not before in years. 
In due time the prior came l)ack with word 



124 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

from tlie Queeu tliat she must again see 
him, and lie brought with him over two 
hundred dollars for Colon to buy for him- 
self a court suit. He brouo:ht also a mule 

to be his very own. Mules, in 

Another n t • 

,« . T^.. those days, were tine thme^s to 

Mule Ride. -^ ' ^ 

have, and not everybody owned 
one to ride. They were worth from three 
hundred to four hundred dollars. Colon 
then took the new suit of fine clothes 
and got astride his own mule and started 
to see the beautiful Queen once again. 

These three men had made up their minds 
as to about what the terms should be. Colon 
was to ask for three vessels, and for men, 
and for one-eighth of the profits, and that 
he should be Admiral of the little fleet and 
should be appointed Governor of the lands 
he should discover, the title to come down 
to his heirs after him. 

These terms depended entirely upon his 
success, except the start. The starting out 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 125 

was surely a small expense, only three little 
boats and the men and the necessary pro- 
visions ! 

But it is very surprising that the wise- 
heads, Ferdinand especially, thought // 
Columbus discovered something, there was 
going to be " too much in it" for himself. 
Queen Isabella pleaded that it was all fair. 
The Marchioness, her l^est friend, also pleaded 
for Colon. But no! another Council was 
called, and other wise heads said the plan 
might be good enough, but Colon asked for 
too much glory and profit. 

It is very strange that even men of to-day 
can draw conclusions as foolish as those men 

did, after it has been proven that 
Envy and ^ , ,. , , , , , 

Colon did not ask too much. 
Bitterness. 

One writer says, " His arrogant 
spirit led him to magnify his own impor- 
tance before he had proved it. He failed 
in modesty," etc., while the truth is, he 
showed a mighty wisdom in not going about 



126 OOLUMBrS AND WHAT TIE foihstd. 

the thing half-hearted. What woukl have 
])een the outcome, if, with a weak " modesty," 
he had asked for half enough? 

But the authorities said it was too much, 
so Colon acceded somewhat, and offered to 
hear one- eighth the expense. 

No, that would n't do. So Colon simply 

left a2:ain. He mounted his sfift of a mule 

^. ^ and I suppose he thanked his 

The Queen ^ ^ 

Will Do It ^tars that Isabella was his friend, 
at least; hut he had gone only 
two miles when a man came after him, post 
haste, and said, " Come back. The Queen 
herself will furnish everything asked for." 

The story used to be that she offered her 
jewels, but it seems that is not quite true; 
but it is true that she said she would, on her 
own res23onsibility, give Columbus all the 
support he asked for, and that she, as Queen 
of Castile, would supply him the means. 
This relieved Ferdinand from responsibility, 
though the money was at first borrowed fi'om 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 127 

his treasury aud he and she together signed 
the great aud important papers that at last 
gave to Columbus his wish — the chance to 
sail out on the Sea of Darkness. 

Now was the time for his heart to fail if 
there was any fail in him, for now it must 
be proven that he was right. He had offered 
all that a man could offer and that was his 
life. Now he was actually to give it. 

The very important paper making this 
" pauper pilot " an Admiral of the Ocean 
Sea, and giving him authority to govern 
w^hatever he shouhl discover was signed, 

" This seventeenth day of x\jpv\l^ in the 
year of the Birth of our Saviour tfesus 
Christy one thousand four hundred and 
ninety -two ^ in this city of Santa Fe^ in 
the Plain of Grenada ^ 

The whole paper is not very long, but 
it is very formal and has many big words in 
it, so I will not trouble you to read it now. 

The most curious part of all, though, was 



128 COLUMBIJS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

the letter written by Ferdinand and Isabella 
to tlie great Kubla Khan and to Prestor John, 
for " Christopher Columhus^ who will tell 
them that tliey are in good health and per- 
fect prosperity ^"^ to take with him when he 
should find himself in their great kingdoms. 
This letter was written April 30, only thir- 
teen days after the great document was 
signed. 

How little any of them thought that that 
poor letter was going to be dragged up and 
down and around the Avilds of our iS^ew 
Continent while men were hunting for the 
Khan and his mountains of pearls, and 
cities where parties were given to ten thou- 
sand people at one time, everybody dressed 
in cloth of gold! No, that letter never 
reached Kubla Kahn, it only reached our 
wild Indians. 

Now Colon started immediately with his 
letters in his pockets for the homelike con- 
vent, and how like a man of to-day he 



COLUMBUS AXD 'WHAT HE FOUXD. 129 

was in that sleepy Spanish world. He 
expected to be off in ten days.' Was not 

Colon a real American for '* hust- 
A Real 

lingr.*" when he had a chance to 
American. 

''hustle," and vet was he not 
magnificently patient Avhen he must be 
patient' How long- he had waited, and 
now what haste I 

The King and Queen had a claim on two 
vessels which belonged to the Port of Palos, 
so they gave Colon an order to take those 
tAN'o vessels and then- crews, and to find 
also another one for his vovagre. Orders 
were sent to the Mayor of Palos to collect 
men and provisions and arms and all that 
was necessary for the voyage, and a morn- 
ing was appointed when this Mayor was — 
to have the orders published in the morning 
papers? Xo. to read them to the towns- 
people LQ St. George's Church. And 01 
into what an excitement the poor little 
town was thrown! It was dreadful news. 



130 COLTTMBIJS ATS-D AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

Everybody was so astonished to tliink this 

strangei' that had T)een around of hite had 

gotten them all into such great difficulty. 

Nobody would go. The order from the 

court then said that they must go — that 

prisoners could be pai'doned of their crimes 

if they would go, yet there were not enough. 

Yes, it was a sad day for Palos, and the 

business of getting off was so dreadful that 

it seemed almost an impossibil- 
A Sad Day . i p T»r ^ 

^ . ity. ihe month or May passed 

for Palos. -^ -^ ^ 

aAvay and Colon was uneasy and 
in haste and hard at work. June came and 
was almost gone when a man arrived \vith 
word direct from the court that if it was 
necessary, the military forces would see 
that Colon had his men; that is, there 
would be war, if necessary, to make some- 
body go. 

This frightened the people still more, and 
it began to be a very serious matter. The 
good Perez finally succeeded in interesting 



COLUMBUS Aisrr> WHAT HE FOUND. 181 

in the scheme, two men, brothers, who 

were quite ^villing to enter into it if there 

was really anything to be gained; but they, 

like every one, supposed it was only a 

craz}^ dream. But when Colon 
The Pinzons. n i • i 

gave them all his thoughts m 

the matter, and told them of all that he 
expected to gain for Spain and for every- 
body who would enter into the undertaking, 
they became quite willing to go. Their 
names were Martin Alonzo Pinzon and 
Yanez Pinzon. They agreed to go, to 
manage the two small l)oats, the "Nina" 
and the " Pinta," which were there in port. 
They were the leading men of the commu- 
nity and it was quite a victory when they 
really decided to join Colon. 

After many difficulties, another vessel was 
found, which was larger and had a deck. 
This was the " Santa Maria," and Columbus 
^vas very busy getting these boats into a very 
safe condition, and July was gone and 



132 COLtTMBtTS AND WHAT HE FOtlNB. 

August liad come, before all was ready, the 
morning of tlie tliird of August. It was 
Friday and there was no sleep in all that 
toAvn the night before. The men ^vho were 
ready to go numbered one hundred and 
twenty. Ninety were rough men. The 
others were priests, a secretary, and an 
attorney, some physicians, captains and 
pilots. 

Colon was in command of the " Santa 
Maria." The Pinzons commanded the other 
two vessels. All were at St. George's Church 
to have their sins absolved and to be ready 
to sail long before day. It was more like 
one OTand funeral of the whole town than 
anything else. There had been many vessels 
sail from this shady little port ])efore, but 
nothing like this had ever started out. 

This sad, glad, wonderful new thought, at 
last sailed out of the harl)or and turned west 
for the ofreat Gribraltar and for the Ocean Sea 
by the time the sun was up, and the little 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 133 

town settled down, as best it could, to wonder 
about all tlie strange things that were going 
on in the world. 

The good Queen Isabella took young Diego 
into her own family, to be a page to her 
young son, Prince Juan. 




VIII. 




We will begin this voyage with 
Columbus' own words, for they 
are the introduction to his jour- 
nal which he kept while he 
made the path through the 
strange Ocean Sea of Dark- 



ness. 

It is easy to note from 
them that his first, supreme 
motive, at that time, was 
to take Christianity to a 
perishing world. He had seen Christianity 
conrpier the Moors and Jews in Spain; that 
is, he had seen what the worhl then tliought 
was Christian conquest. Mohammedanism 
falling before Christianity as it did in 1492 
before Columbus' very eyes, made him feel 
very sure that Christ was about to conquer 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 135 

the world in this way. We have learned 
better, but we must humbly remember how 
we have learned it through others. 

Columbus had read in Marco Polo how the 
Kubla Khan desired to learn of Christianity; 
for if he read the book at all, and we know 
he did, he must have read the request (from 
the Khan) that the Pope " would send a 
hundred men of learning, thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the principles of the Christian 
religion, as well as with the seven arts, and 
qualified to prove to the learned of his do- 
minions, by just and fair argument, that the 
faith professed by Christians is superior to, 
and founded upon more evident truth than 
any other; that the gods of the Tartars and 
the idols worshiped in their houses were only 
evil spirits." He also wanted brought to him 
some of the " holy oil from the lamp which 
is kept Imrning over the sepulchre of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." No doubt Columbus 
wished he could take some of this with him. 



130 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Columbus liimself seems to have informed 
the King and Queen of this desire of the 
Khan and his successors, as you will see. 
His story begins, " In the name of Jesus 
Christ." This sentence is remarkably sim- 
ple when compared with other documents 
of the day. Jesus Christ and all his attri- 
l)utes, God and all his power, wei-e dragged 
out in words and words at the beocinnino- 
of every important writing. In fact, it was 
thought very impolite to mention any name 
that ^vas at all revered, without also men- 
tioning the reverence in which it was held. 

Columbus goes on, — " Most High, most 
Christian, most excellent and most mighty 
Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of 
the islands of the sea, our lord and our 
sovereign, this present year, 1492, after 
Your Highness had put an end to the war 
against the Moors, who were reigning in 
Europe, and had terminated the great war 
in the city of Granada, where this jDresent 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 137 

year, the second day of the month of Jan- 
uary, I saw floating the royal banners of 
your Highness on the towers of the Alham- 
l^ra, the fortress of the said city, and where 
I saw the Moorish King come to the gates 
of the city and kiss the royal hands of 
your Highness and of my lord, the Prince! 
Then in this present month and according 
to the information which I had given to 
your Highness of the lands of India, and 
of a Prince called Grand Khan, which 
means, in our common language. King of 
Kings, and that several times he and his 
predecessors had sent to Kome to demand 
Doctors in our Holy Faitli to teach him; 
as the Holy Father had never provided any, 
and as so many people were being lost in 
their idolatrous sects of perdition, your 
Highnesses thought, in your position as 
Christian Catholics and as amiable princes 
and propagators of the holy Christian Faith 
and as enemies of the sects of Mohamme- 



V]S COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

danism and of all idolatries and heresies, of 
sending me, Christopher Columbus, to the 
said Countries of India to see the said 
princes and the peoples and the countries 
and their dispositions and the state of 
everything, and the manner in which one 
could best set about their conversion to 
holy faith. You commanded me not to go 
to the Orient by land, as was the custom 
to do, but, on the contrary, to take the 
western route ])y which we have no positiv^e 
kno^vledge of any one ever having passed. 
Consequently, after having chased all tlie 
Jews from your kingdoms and domains, 
your Highness commanded me, in this same 
month of January, to set out with a fleet 
sufficiently large, for the said countries of 
India. And on that occasion you granted 
me great favors and ennobled me, inasmuch 
that henceforth I was called Don, and was 
Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and Vice- 
roy and perpetual Governor of all the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 139 

islands and mainlands of which I should 
make the discovery and conquest, and by 
which, in consequence, the discovery and 
conquest may l)e made [See the man's 
faith!] in the Ocean Sea, and you decreed 
that my oldest son should succeed me and 
that it should be thus from generation to 
generation forever and forever. I started 
from the city of Granada, Saturday, the 
12tli of the month of May, of this same 
year, 1492. I came to the city of Palos, a 
seaport where I fitted up three vessels very 
convenient for such an undertaking, and I 
left the harbor very well provided Avith a 
great many provisions and seamen. Friday, 
the 3d day of August of said year, and 
half an hour before sunrise, I followed the 
route of the Canary Islands, which belong 
to your Highness and which are situated in 
said Ocean Sea, to take from there my 
route and to sail until I should , arrive at 
the Indies, so as to acquit myself of the 



140 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

embassy of your Highness to these })riuces 
and thus to execute wliat you thus com- 
manded me to do. I intend, also, on this 
account, to record very punctually and to 
relate day by day all that I may do and 
see and all that ha[)pen to me, as will be 
seen farther on. Moreover, Mighty Pi'ince 
and Princess, purposing to write each night 
that ^vllich shall have happened in the day 
and each day the navigation of the night, 
I intend, liesides, to make a new marine 
map, on which I shall indicate the situation 
of all the sea and of all the lands of the 
Ocean Sea in their proper position, and tlie 
direction in which the wind conies to them, 
and to compose a ])ook in which I shall 
represent in painting the latitude from the 
equinoctial line, and the longitude from the 
west line. It is very especially important 
that 1 forget sleep and that I study with 
perseverajice my navigation, to fuliill all the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 141 

obligations that are imposed on me, which 
will be a great labor." 

These are what T call most majestic words. 
Columbus has been represented as here say- 
ing he should not sleep until he had found 
land, Avdiich you can see would be only 
foolish talk. He did not say that, for the 
abov^e translation has been carefully made 
from Las Casas, who has 2>i"^served it for 
us in Columbus' own words. It is just as 
he wrote it, and is the whole of what he 
wrote as an introduction to his journal. He 
then begins again by saying, — " I started 
Friday, August 'M\, from the shoals of the 
Saltes and we made before sunset sixty 
miles, then we went single file towards the 
southwest." 

Sad, sweet picture this is, of the little fleet, 
as night came on, heading single file for the 
great unknown, loaded with such great re- 
sponsibilities. Many of its men never saw 
Spain again. 



142 COLUMBrS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Tills first voyage across the Atlantic was 
made in three small vessels no hiro-er than 
the yachts which now go fiHnn one point to 
another along the coast; rarely do they vent- 
ure across the ocean in these days. How- 
ever, Columbus did wisely, it is said, in 
choosing small vessels. They Avere the best 
for examining what he had found after he 
found it, and you know Avhat a scholar he 
was in navigation and how long he was 
trained on the sea. 

Providence seemed to order the wind and 
weather to be exactly i-ight all the Avay for 
this first trip. If they had found such 
weather as they did on their return, we 
should not have heard of Columbus a^ain 
after he left Palos, for the men never would 
have gone on and Columbus would never 
have given it up, so someljody would have 
gone to the bottom. Columl)us'' great thought 
had carried everything before it all the ^vay 
up to the time he was off, and the weather 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 143 

now, fortunately, helped to carry him over 
the last great thing. Much of Columbus' 

own journal is yet preserved 

The Journal of . t , • hit r^ t 

m what IS called Las Oasas 

Columbus. . • ^^^^ ' 

abridgment of it. This good 

man did not copy all of it for us for fear 

we would get tired of it, so he only picked 

out parts of it. The journal itself, sad to 

say, is lost. But there are some of Colum- 

l)us' letters and papers yet in the world 

exactly as he left them. 

Columbus had the worst men on his own 

vessel, where he could control them 

l)est. He had, also, most of the 
on Board. 

officers to help him control them. 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon on the " Pinta " had 
another lot, not so bad. The " Mna," the 
"■ little girl," was the l)est behaved vessel of 
the three, and never gave any trouble to 
anybody, and was the only one left to take 
Columbus home again when he was ready to 
start. In all my reading, I have formed a 



144 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

great love for the brave " little girl " boat, 
for that is what the name " Nina " means. 
She was in command of Yanez Pinzon, who 
always behaved himself well, which is, no 
doubt, the reason why the "little girl " did 
the same. 

Next morning they were out of sight of 
land, which was a dreadful experience for 
sailors in that day. Columbus steered 
straight for the Canaries. These islands 
were owned T)y the Spaniards, and no dou])t 
they hoped to find a little of home again, 
for they expected to meet some Spaniards 
there. Saturday, Sunday, all went well, 
except that the men grumbled. Monday, the 
" Pinta " had a tossing about that broke her 
rudder nearly off. Columbus' boat came 
alongside to learn what Avas the matter, for 
he saw the boat was " rolling " ; he found 
what it was, but he trusted Martin Alonzo 
to repair it when he said he thought he 
could manage to hold together until they 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 145 

should reacli the islands. The next day 

something again gave Avay and it looked as 

if some men on the " Pinta " were trying to 

get it out of order so that she would liave 

to turn back with them and take them home 

again. But Captain Pinzon fixed it up once 

more, yet in the night she sprang a leak, 

which detained them again, and after tliat 

they had to go very slowly; it 
Misfortunes . 

^ . ^. was not until tlie next Sunday 

of the Pinta. -^ 

that they came in sight of 
the Canary Islands. The men liad to stay 
on board and did not get back liome again, 
after all. They were worse frightened than 
ever as they approached the islands, when 
they saw " a great flame " coming from the 
awful top of the Peak Teneriffe. It looked 
to them as if they had come to the islands 
that must be death's place, for most of them 
had never seen anything like that before. 
It appeared to be the very lightnings from 
God to punish this man for daring to go 



146 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

out on such a risk. Columbus here hoped 
he could trade off the "Pinta" and get 
a l)etter vessel, but he could not, so he 
liad to contrive all sorts of ropes and stuff 
to mend it with, and it took him three weeks, 
but you see he did n't fail to do it. Pinzon 
and Columbus did not trust any one, but did 
it themselves. They were not ready to sail 
on until September 8 — just one month from 
the time they left Palos. 

They had rather discouraging news as they 
sailed out from these islands aV)out some sus- 
picious vessels tliat lay ahead 
The Pope Draws ^^^ ^^^^^^^ Nobody knew ex- 

a Line through .i i . ,1 rri • 

actiy what they w^ere. ihis 
the Ocean. -^ ^ ^ 

was very strange, indeed, for 
it was the farthest out any one had ever been. 
Columbus and Pinzon felt quite sure they 
were Portuguese vessels ready to seize them, 
for Portugal claimed the riglit to discover 
just as much new land as Spain, and ^vllen 
one nation causfht the otlu^r discoverin*^ tlie 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE I^OUXD. 147 

same land there was trouble. The Pope 
finally had to divide the sea between these 
two nations. Columbus knew that, having 
been so detained, and the story of where he 
was going having been so widely talked 
about, it was very probable that the Port- 
uguese were away out there waiting for 
him, so he sped as fast as j^ossible around 
the place where ships had been seen. A 
calm, however, kept him back, but it kept 
his pursuers also, and they were finally 
seen no more. 

On the 8th of September a fine breeze 
sprang up and sent them on down the world, 
so that the Peak of Teneriffe sank out of 
sight behind them, and it seemed to them that 
the last of land was seen forever. 

A dreadful loneliness then crept over the 

^, ^ sailors. A floating: spar was seen 

The Spar. ° ^ 

away out in the sea. It looks 
somewhat like a dead body afloat, and 
sailors think it means disaster. 



148 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

The pilots would steer the vessels toward 
the north, in spite of Columbus' commands. 
The awful stories of whirlpools, boiling water 
and dreadful places were always told of the 
south, so it is not surprising they preferred to 
steer away from that part of the world. But 
"due west from the Canaries until something 
is found," was Columbus' iron purpose and 
promise, and the men had to obey. 

The Admiral's calculations had been that 

seven hundred and fifty leagues would bring 

him to the Island of Ci- 
Toscanelli's flap. i , i i < 

pango, but he managed not 

to let the pilots nor any one know the ex- 
act distance they had come. His private 
reckoning was carefully guarded from any- 
body's intrusion. It was his own awful 
piece of business and nobody else had any 
right to know how far they had come. 

On and on they sailed. Then a most 
strange thing happened. The faithful com- 
pass seemed to be bewitched. They found 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 149 

it wrong. They had sailed six hundred 

miles, and the l)ravest of them began to feel 

there was something the matter with the 

earth beneath them, for who had ever heard 

of the compass failing; and to fail them 

here, where nothing else could guide them, 

was awful indeed. Columbus' 

The Variation . i i • • • • 

^ ,, ^, ^. learnms;; and his ima2:ination 
of the Needle. ^ ^ 

then came to his I'escue, for 
he could guide l)y the stars, when they 
shone, and he also made up something 
about this variation of the needle l)y say- 
ing probably the North Star itself made a 
circle every twenty -four hours, and of course 
the needle would have to follow it. As 
they went on, the needle straightened itself 
toward the north again. 

A terrible meteor shot through the sky 

one niofht and pluns^ed into the 
The Meteor. ° . .1 

sea not tar away rrom them. 

This, indeed, they thought, was wrath from 
heaven. Ah! we may smile, but we must 



150 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

remember what our better knowledge has 
cost somebody. AVe did not create it. 
It has come to us, else we would never 
have had it, so how can we boast of any 
superiority ? 

Between these alarming things that ^vere 
happening, and while Columbus would be 
sitting high on the poop of his vessel, 
never sleeping, day or night, only when 
entirely overcome by weariness, two dear 
little l)irds came to them, which seemed 
almost like friends speaking. It was over 
the " little girl " boat that they flew. They 
were rock birds, they thought. Sea-weeds 
lay thick about them once, and it is a 
wonder they were not tangled up in 
them, for there is a mighty sea of them 
called Sargasso Sea. They thought the sea- 
weeds meant rocks, but they were very far 
from rocks. 

They now had a fine, steady breeze at 
their backs which was, to their minds, a bad 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 151 

omen, for if the wind always blew steadily 
in this westward direction how could they 
go against it when they should want to 
return ! 

The men of the " Nina," again the lucky 
boat, saw some little tunny-fish, just such 
little fish as they had caught at home. This 
greatly encouraged them. Columbus him- 
self began to feel that this might mean land 
somewhere near. 

On the 18th of September, that bold boat, 
the " Pinta," which was so weak at first, 
took a sail ahead, contrary to Columbus' 
orders, and then the men dared to come 
back and tell Columbus that they had seen 
a whole flock of birds go over their heads. 

Columbus had suggested to Isabella be- 
fore he left, that ten thousand maravedis be 
offered to the one who first saw land, so, of 
course, each one Avas getting very anxious 
to win that; but Columbus really thought 
they must be only about halfway. The men 



152 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

were getting frightfully uneasy about the 
steady wind in one direction. 

No more signs of land. The men were 
sure they ought to change their course. 
They thought they had passed some islands. 
Columbus prayed that the wind might 
change, and on the 22d of September, sure 
enough, a breeze sprang up, which proved 
to them they could sail home fast enough 
if it were necessary. So that trouble was 
ended. 

" Never since the day when Moses brought 
the children of Israel out of Egypt were 
waves so welcome," wrote the brave leader 
in his journal. 

On, on, they went, their supply of food 
getting lower, so that turning back might 
be a bad thing, even if the wind should 
force their commander to go back. 

On the evening of the 25th of September, 
as the sun sank, there seemed to be a low, 
dark line at the edge of the water. No 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 153 

doubt men climbed to tlie .tops of their 
masts and to those little " topcastles " I told 
yon of, each evening. This night a shout 
came from Martin Pinzon, on the " Pinta," 
"Land! Land! Mine the reward!" All 
looked, and Columbus, even, finally con- 
cluded it was land, and said, " Yes, yours 
is the reward, but let us give thanks," and 
on all three vessels they gave thanks to 
God as the Gloria in Excelsis was chanted. 
The dark came on and they could see no 
more that night. It was, of course, an anx- 
ious night. In the morning how very sad it 
was to see no land at all. It had probably 
been only a low cloud. 



IX. 



After the terrible disappointment, despair 
took hold of many. Perhaps the Ad- 
miral's strength held out because he had 
to help the rest to live through it. Nothing 
so helps at times of great strain as to have 
to help others. 

As dangers and fears arose, Colum])us, 
the man, rose above them. Such strong 
character had in years past been woven 
into his life that nothing about him gave 
way now. His lofty faith in God, and in 
himself, and in his lifelong hope, now was 
put to its last great test, and the man and 
his God -given faith bore that test. Reason, 
also, bore him on. He remembered Juan 
Perez, Garcia Fernandez and Isabella — their 
prayers, their learning, their faith, all must 
have been turned over and over in his mind 

151 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 155 

as lie sat alone, night after night, watching 
the mighty, lonely deep. 

But he Avas great enough for it all, be- 
cause God was with him. 

Four more days of the " everlasting 
monotony," and a frigate bird came to the 
" Santa Maria." Birds must have been as 
much to them then and there as Noah's 
doves were to him. 

About the first of October, the pilot of the 
" Santa Maria " came to the Admiral and 
said he had gone as far as the Admiral had 
said he should have to go. He proposed to 
go no farther. The Admiral knew they had 
already gone one hundred leagues farther 
than the pilot knew, and it began to look 
to Columbus himself as if they might have 
passed the land. There had, been no more 
signs of land for a few days, but, as usual, 
there came a flock of birds just in time to 
save their hopes. 

On the evening of the 6th of October all 



156 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND 

three Captains had a deep consultation. The 
Pinzons insisted that they should turn more 
to the south, for there the birds steered (they 
must have gotten over the feai* of hoiling 
places), "No," Columbus said, "we may 
miss all if w^e do." He kept straight ahead 
tvesf. The next morning, October 7, early, 
the dear little "Nina" fired a gun. It meant 
land! The other boats crowded close up to 
her, but, sad to say, no land appeared. It 
was only low-lying morning mists. 

Another consultation that evening. More 
birds had been seen going south. The Ad- 
miral finally decided to take more the direc- 
tion of the birds. He remembered it was 
October, the time for chilly weather, but it 
was warm as summer with them. He knew 
the birds knew where summer always was, so 
the birds finally did the piloting (it would 
have been ])etter if he had kept on west), 

But the days again grew uninteresting. 
They could not bear it, when they had ex- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 157 

pectecl so soon to find trees and people 
again, and by the ninth or tenth of Octo- 
ber things grew dangerous. 

The men got together and made up their 
minds they would go no farther. Some have 
said they broke out in mutiny, but it seems 
they only summoned Columbus to come to 
them. He came; he appealed to them. 
Had they not seen signs of land ? — had 
they not been kept from every disaster? — 
they had found no whirlpools, no monsters 
— r^any other manly words he had with 
them. 

All that was in him came up to this sad 
last hour of trial, and he conquered the 
men. On the next day, the tenth, it grew 
to be very different. 

It has been said that the Admiral prom- 
ised that if, in three days more, they did 
not see land, he would turn back, but it is 
not likely. Columbus would have died 
first. There is no record that he said so, 



158 COLUMBUS AISTD WHAT HE FOUIS'I). 

and it would have l)eeu more than foolish 
to do so then. On the 11th of October a 
higher sea came up than any they had 
experienced since they left the Canaries. 
Rough water seems to have been more en- 
durable than the eternal calm. 

Birds, still, but the sailors had ceased to 
notice them ; they now had something more 
exciting. The " Pinta " picked up a real 
stick of wood. In the afternoon the " little 
girl " found a fresh l>ough from a tree. 

As night came on the Admiral decided to 
head west again, and that they should " slow 
up," as usual, but both the '' Pinta " and 
the " Nina " were too eager to go very 
slowly. 

Columbus, in his high " castle " in the back 
of his " Santa Maria," took his seat as usual 
to watch, and about ten o'clock, ah! there 
shot across his vision a lights a lights from 
out the silent darkness. 

He calmed himself enouofh to call one of 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 159 

the officers to coine to his side and to look 
also. Yes, he could surely see a light mov- 
ing around, then it was gone again. They 
called the third man. He could n't see it. 
Nobody else saw it. Columbus was sure he 
saw it, yet it was dark as ever again, as on 
they went. 

The " Pinta " was daring and selfish enough 
always to keep ahead of the " Santa Maria," 
which was a slower boat, and then Colum- 
bus' own pilot and men obeyed him better 
than the men on the " Pinta " did. Their 
orders were to li.ee][) together. But the 
" Pinta " slipped ahead, and at twelve 
o'clock when the watches all changed, 
Rodriguez Bernarjo took his turn in the 
"Pinta's" watch. 

On, on, two hours more, and all at once, 
at two o'clock, as the moon broke through 
the clouds and threw a burst of light on 
everything — Ah! there before this man's 



160 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

eyes was actual land^ only two and a 
half miles ahead. 

What a wonder the " Pinta " had n't run 
herself on to it! if the moon had not shone 
out just then, she would surely have done 
so very soon. 

But now all was delirious joy. Bang! 
bang! went the guns, and the other boats 
came up and all held very still until day- 
light should come, then there were thanks 
and prayers to God, and such tears of joy 
and gladness as this old Earth never be- 
fore nor since has wept. It was the end of 
a mighty purpose conceived and borne in 
the heart of one great man. It was the 
end of a mighty pain which the Dark 
Ages had known for a thousand years. It 
was the beginning of a New AVorld — a 
New Life. It was the birthday morning of 
our sweet land of Liberty — a new, sweet 
morning for the World. Is it any wonder 
we celebrate October, 1492, as we do 



COLUMBUS AlSri) WHAT HE FOUND. 1(31 

this year, 1892? Four hundred years have 
been none too long a time for us to get 
ready to do it. One hundred years ago 
we could hardly have been ready, for we 
had only begun to have Presidents. It is 
only one hundred and sixteen years since 
the Declaration of Independence was written, 
but now we are indeed a mighty Nation, 
built by God to be very happy and to be 
very serviceable to all the world. So you 
see why we are celebrating this mighty 
birthday. 

The Admiral now was worshiped by his 
men as truly as they had abused him. 
They had added much to his suffering, but 
that was all over now. 

As daylight dawned and there in its 
beauty lay the land that seemed to have 
come out of the ocean, the men were all 
ready for work. Little boats were lowered. 
Columbus unpacked his best clothes and put 
them on, and the attorney for the King 



162 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

*and Queen saw that all was done accord- 
ing to law, and we are told how very care- 
fully Columbus came on to the land in the 
most stately fashion, with his banner and 
his sword, and took possession. 

We are told, too, that he fell to the earth 
on his knees and kissed the ground. 

But what or who it was they had found, 
they were several days finding out. This 
newborn baby was as much of a puzzle as 
many another baby is. 

There were queer -looking people dodging 
in and out from behind the bushes. Instead 
of being dressed in cloth of gold, they had 
no clothes on at all. And they had colored 
skins and were entirely different from what 
Columbus or any one exjDCcted to find or 
had ever seen. 

They ate no meat, they had no notion of 
fighting, they just seemed to be wild, ha23py, 
silly people, with a very queer language of 
their own. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 163 

Of course tliey were terribly awed at the 
great white men and their great ships that 
they thought had come from the sky. They 
supposed they were gods, and were de- 
lighted with them, as soon as they found 
it was safe to welcome them to their homes, 
and all were soon on very happy terms with 
each other, and with all the New World. 



X. 



It all seemed to be like paradise, this 
quiet, peaceful place, where there was noth- 
ing to fear, where there were no animals 
" except parrots." They staid in this place 
for two or three days. 

Columbus now walked on territory which 

he was hereafter to govern according to his 

own ^\dll. The attorney who had 

Important • i i • 

^ come with him read to all the 
Papers. 

men the important papers which 
made Columbus a great man in their eyes. 
They had been given by . the King and 
Queen to be read as soon as they should 
discover any land. A part of them reads 
as follows: 

" And we also command all captains, 
masters, mates, officers, seamen and seafar- 
ing men in general, our subjects and j^eoF^e 

i6d 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 165 

who now are or ever shall be, and each 
and every one of them, that whenever the 
said islands and mainlands shall have been 
discovered and won by you in the Ocean 
Sea, and yon, or whoever you appoint, sliall 
have taken the oath and performed the 
ceremonies for such cases, they shall receive 
and obey you all your lifetime, and after 
you, your sons and successors from successor 
to successor forever and forever, as our Ad- 
miral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy and 
Governor in said islands and mainlands, 
which you shall discover and acquire.'' 

To the sailors this appeared to be very 
solemn power given forever to the man 
whom they had so mistrusted, and had 
thought so crazy. He seemed to them then 
to be a very different man, in his Vice- 
royalty, and all that. And it is a won- 
der that Columbus himself changed so 
little under all that came to him. His 
letters, however, read so simply and hum- 



160 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

bly that it is easy to be seen lie was yet 

but a man intensely anxious to unravel a 

great mystery. His next terrible anxiety 

appears to be to have something to say 

that will })lease the King and Queen about 

the good they can do, and the gold they 

can have from this great thing that he has 

found. 

He at once begins to discover the j)6ople. 

He has no name for them for he does not 

know what they are, but he 
The People. . 

writes about " these people or the 

Indies." He was sure he was at the India 
where Marco Polo had been. He ^vi'ites 
in his journal on the first evening, after 
what must have been a very exciting day. 
He had not slept the night before; read 
what he writes on Friday, October 12th: 

*" So that they might be friendlily inclined 
toward us and because I felt that they were 

*Navarrete. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 107 

people who might deliver themselves the 
more readily to us, and who might be con- 
verted to our Holy Faith rather by gentle- 
ness and persuasion than by violence, I 
gave to several of them colored caps (or 
bonnets) and glass beads which they put 
around their necks, and many other things 
of little value, which gave them great pleas- 
ure and won for us their friendship to a 
marvelous degree. 

" Afterwards they swam to the small boats 
in which we were and brought us some 
parrots, some cotton thread in balls, some 
javelins, and a great many other things, and 
exchanged them with us for other objects 
which we gave them, such as little glass 
beads and hawk-bells. In line, they took all 
that we offered them and gave very will- 
ingly all that they had: but it seemed to me 
that they were quite a poor people in all 
respects. Men and women go as entirely 
naked as when they were born; of the men 



168 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

which I saw, there was not a single one who 
was more than thirty years old. 

" They were very well formed, had T)eau- 
tifiil bodies and pretty faces. Their hair 
was almost as coarse as horsehair, short, 
and coming down to the eyebrows [these 
were "bangs," I suppose]. They left hang- 
ing down behind a long lock which they 
never cut. Some of them paint themselves 
black; their natural color is that of the 
Canary Islanders; they are neither black 
nor white; but among them there are some 
who paint themselves white, others red, 
others whatever color they find. Some paint 
only the face — others, all the body; some the 
eyes, others only the nose. They carry no 
weapons and have no acquaintance with 
them, for I showed them some sabres, and 
as they took them by the edge they cut 
themselves out of ignorance. 

"They have no iron; their javelins are 
sticks without points, some of which are 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 169 

finished off by a fisli's tootli, and others l:)y 
some hard substance or other. 

" I saw some of them liad scars on their 
bodies and I asked by signs what they were, 
and they made me understand that there 
came to their island troops of inhabitants 
of the neighboring islands who wanted to 
take them, and that they defended them- 
selves. I believed, and I believe still, some- 
body comes here from the mainlands to take 
them and reduce them to slavery. They 
ought to be very good servants, of good 
disposition. I perceive that they promptly 
repeat all that is said to them, and I 
believe that they may become Christians 
without difficulty, as they seem to me to 
belong to no sect whatever. If it please 
our Lord, on my departure I will carry 
with me from here six of them to your 
Highnesses, so that they may learn to speak. 
I have seen in this island no species of 
animals whatever, unless it is some parrots." 



170 COLUMBVS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Let us read on for a little while these very 
words of Columbus. They seem to tell us 
more than any others do: 

" Saturday, Oct. 13th. 
" Hardly had day dawned when we saw 
coming on to the beach a great many of tliese 
men, all young, as I have already said ; all of 
good height. This is a race of men really 
very beautiful. Their hair is not curly but 
flowing; their foreheads and heads are very 
large, more so than any other race that I have 
ever seen. Their eyesv are beautiful and 
not at all small; their color is not black but 
similar to that of the Canary Islanders and 
cannot be otherwise since their situation is 
with that of the Island of Iron, one of the 
Canaries on a direct line from East to 
West." 

The reason why Columbus repeats this 
about their color being like that of the 
Canaries is, probably, so tliat he may in some 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. I7l 

way account for tlie color. He had slept 
over it and happened to think, maybe, that 
folks in the same line of latitude, had the 
same color. What color should he call 
them? It was a color no one had ever seen 
before. The Africans were black, the 
Cathay people, of course, were the Chinese, 
and were yellow^, and Europeans were 
white, but what was the color of this new 
man? We have learned to call him the 
Red Man. How wonderful it is to realize 
that Columbus is the first white man who 
ever saw him and tried to name him and 
his color! 

"I examined them attentively," Columbus 
says, " and tried to find out if there was 
any gold. I saw that some of them wore a 
little piece of it hanging from a hole which 
they made in their noses, and I succeeded 
by signs, in learning from them that by 
going around their island and sailing south- 
ward I would find a country, the king of 



172 coLrMnrs and what iik FOUisrD. 

whicli had large vases of gold in great 
quantity. I tried to persuade them to go 
into this countiy, l)ut I soon understood 
they did not want to go, so I determined 
to Willi until the next day in the afternoon, 
and then to depart to the southwest, where, 
according to the information given me, there 
existed land. The inhabitants of the coun- 
try situated to the northwest often came to 
fight with them and then passed on toward 
the southwest to search for gold and pre- 
cious stones." 

The next day, then, we read of their ex- 
ploits along the coast. Let Columbus him- 
self tell of his as he approached another 
part of the island. 

" As soon as day dawned I prepared to 
visit the difPerent people, and l)efore long I 
saw two or three of the inhabitants come 
to the beach, calling to us and giving thanks 
to God (as they understood some God lived 
up in heaven). One old man came even 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTB. l73 

into my boat, and others called loudly to all 
men and women to ' Come and see the men 
who have come doivn from heaven. Bring 
them something to eat and dinnh.'' 

" Then came a great many men and women 
all bringing something. They thanked God, 
throwing themselves on the earth, raised 
their hands to the sky, and then invited us 
to come to land." 

He examined very closely all this island 
before leaving it, so as to decide where he 
should build a fortress; but he almost con- 
cluded it was unnecessary to build any place 
of defense, since these peaceful people knew 
so little of war. The King and Queen could 
decide for themselves, when they should see 
the seven natives he should take with 
him, " so as to teach them our language 
and to then bring them back into their 
country." " Still, if your Highnesses should 
command that I subdue them or take them 
captives, nothing would be easier, for with 



174 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 

iifty men one could hold them all in per- 
fect submission and do with them whatever 
one would like.'' 

Poor Columbus! it is plain to be seen 
here, that his o\\ti wishes would be to act 
the missionary to these Indians; but he is 
also subject to a conquering King and 
Queen who have sent him to be viceroy al 
governor, and the question is which shall 
he be? He tries to be both governor and 
missionary. 

Soon he sees so many islands he cannot 
decide which direction to take, but he goes 
to the largest one, " which is about iive 
leagues from this one that I leave, and to 
which I have given the name San Sal- 
vador." 

He takes mth him the half-dozen natives, 
for he finally persuaded them to go, and 
moves on to another island, always going 
around their reefs and shoals in the most 
successful manner with his vessels. On the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. l75 

way to this larger island, a canoe of natives 
came toward tliem, alongside the " Nina." 
The iirst thing anybody knew, one of the 
half- dozen jumped from the ship into the 
canoe and away they went as fast as they 
could. 

Columbus was anxious to have no trouble 
with these people for they had willingly 
come with him, yet if one escapes like that 
with a bad tale to tell it may make trouble, 
so they tried hard to catch him and bring 
him back and make it all understood, but 
the white men could not catch them. Co- 
lumbus describes it in his journal and says 
they " ran like scared chickens " into the 
woods. The men, however, saw just then 
another boat load coming who had not seen 
the chase. Eagerly the white men held up 
balls of cotton to show that their commer- 
cial intentions were good. They would not 
come very close to the boat. The Admiral 



176 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

then ordered that tliey be taken by force, 
and so tbey were, but badly frightened. 

But Cohimbus' plan was to take them 
and trim them all up with beads and trink- 
ets, and give them presents, and then let 
them go again so that they could tell 
a happier tale than the man who had run 
away from them. Many little stratagems 
like this Columbus had to use to keep 
peace and to keep all under his eye. 

It is very interesting to read about this 
cruising among the islands, but only a few 
of the most important matters can we here 
touch upon. The bits of dried leaves with 
Avhich these men made a sort of stick and 
then set one end on fire and put the 
other end into their mouths and made a 
smoke, was a most curious proceeding, and 
one which our Columbus himself never 
took any " stock in," but the tobacco 
which these Indians smoked has been a 
source of much — shall we say wealth? 



COLFMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 177 

It remains, I think, for the economist 
of real value to decide about that. It has 
certainly been a source of much weakness 
to real manhood, and the world had been 
a much better world since, if it had not 
made this savage discovery of tobacco. 

Columbus seems finally to have named 
these natives Indians. He is so sure he is 
in India that he falls into the habit, and 
he sets the habit for the world since. 
American Indians they are to-day. 

These who were first discovered, who 
lived in such lazy, mild, happy ways, were 
very different from those found afterwards 
on the other islands and on our Continent. 



XI. 



Be sure to look at the map and see what 
a broken -up place our Columbus struck, 
and remember, what solid land — Florida — 
he would have found instead, if he had 
only kept straight west that time when the 
birds and the Pinzons decided him t(j turn 
southwest. 

AVhat a lot of distress it would have 
saved him if he had discovered the conti- 
nent instead of these bewilder- 
Bewildering . • i i -i 

. . mo; and numerous islands, these 

Islands. ^ 

reefs and rocks and floundering 

seas. It was enough completely to break 
any man's heart never to be able to know 
what he had found. In all four of Columbus' 
voyages he went drifting around in this tei*- 
riblc liollow of wastes and islands whicli 
you know lies in between the two irreat 

Americas, the North and the Soiitli. 

178 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 179 

But God had a mighty purpose in this 
and Columhus was His own man. God's 

plan was that Protestantism 
Catholicism and , , ^ ,i t • i ii 

and not Catholicism snould 
Protestantism. , . 

have its chance in the New 

World. If Columbus, representing Catholic 
Spain, had struck the continent, we would 
all have been Catholics, if we had been 
at all; but as it is, England made us into 
Protestants, and Catholicism landed with our 
good Columbus farther South. Hence, Mex- 
ico, Central America and South America, 
and the West Indies, are Catholic to-day, 
while we are Protestant, because Spain fol- 
lowed up Columbus' discovery and planted 
her religion there. But we will not here 
and now, begin to get ourselves into 
trouble about the difference between Cathol- 
icism and Protestantism, but go on fol- 
lowing the man Columbus. I believe 
it is Man, after all, Man with a capital 
M, who is going to save us, and of course 



180 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

you know I mean the Man Jesus, the Christ. 

But let us get back again into Colum- 
bus' own boat and know only what he 
knew, and that is that God is good and 
takes care of every one of us in our own 
time if Ave will but do our whole part. 

He wished to visit a small town because 
" the king who resides there wears a 
great deal of gold. I shall go to-morrow 
far enough ahead so that I shall certainly 
find the tribe. I shall see the king aird 
shall speak to this sovereign who, accord- 
ing to the testimony of these Indians, has 
under his dominion all the neighboring 
islands, wears clothes and is entirely cov- 
ered with gold. 

"My intention is not to visit this coun- 
try in much detail, because I should not 
succeed in fifty years, and I wish on the 
contrary as much as possible to see and to 
discover other new countries, and to return 
to you in the month of April, if it pleases 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 181 

our Lord. It is true that when I shall 
have found places where there are gold and 
spices in large quantities, I will stay there 
awhile until I have made as large provision 
of them as possible, and the only aim of my 
cruises is the search for these provisions." 

Cruel disappointment is now beginning to 
weigh heavily on his heart. He remembers, 
no doubt, the great ado there was about the 
expenses, and he knows that there '11 be 
something to pay in all his after life if this 
thing does not turn out well in riches. He 
must find gold. 

As soon as the natives saw these white 
people, " they all took fright, abandoned 
their homes and their clothes, and all that 
they possessed. I would not allow anything 
to be taken from them, not even to the 
value of a pin," writes Columbus. 

At last he succeeded in pacifying them and 
then they could not do enough for him. 
But he still wanted to find the king, and to 



182 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

go to another land which he believed to he 
Cipango; the Indians called it Cuba, but 
it was yet a long ways off. He sailed 
around among fruits and flowers, " but," he 
says, " my resolution is to go to the main- 
land, to the city of Quinsay, to deliver the 
letters of your Highnesses to the Great 
Khan, to secure his response and to return 
as soon as I may carry it." 

When he held his devotions and talked 

with his men he must have 

Searches for -, ^i i 4. j! 

more and more tnougnt ot 

Cuba, the . „ . 

_ . , those idols which the Uumsay 

Golden *^ 

Cipango. people were w^orshiping, and 

of the good message he had 
for them of God and His love for every- 
body. 

He finally decided that there was no gold 
in sight and that he must move on; but he 
was troubled because many different winds 
were necessary for such roundabout ways 
as he had to take. He could go straight 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 183 

across an ocean with almost any wind, but 
you can see without steam it took very wise 
navigating to get around here among islands, 
rocks, reefs and shallow waters. 

Slowly and carefully they felt their way 
through sands and rocks and torrents of 
rain for several days, and reached the beau- 
tiful land of Cuba. He had been told it 
had in it ten great rivers, and plenty of 
gold and had a great king. The beautiful 
harbor which, according to Navarrete, is 
now called Nipe Bay, is where Columbus 
landed, fully expecting to visit a real king. 
Columbus had never seen or heard of such 
ragged coasts, full of harbors, with mount- 
ains in the distance and great palms 
stretching themselves up like sentinels. In- 
deed, this was the land of Paradise! 

Others besides Columbus have described 
the beauty that dwells there; but think 
what it was to Columbus, the first white 
man who ever saw it or heard of it. 



184 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Ferns and orchids, j)alm -trees, even fern- 
trees, all in tangled masses — fruits, such 
as lemons, bananas, grapes, all in tropical 
abundance — spices, then in Europe worth 
many dollars per j^o^md — all seemed to him 
to be mighty riches; yet how in the world 
was he to make it into riches for their 
Majesties? No, he could only feast on it 
himself. Many times he wished he could 
stay there always. Yet he had a sad heart 
with him for he had two dear boys at home; 
he must not stay, but must go on. 

Some of these mountains rise up four 
thousand and five thousand feet high, and 
away in there in the center must be where 
Kubla Khan was holding those great 
parties. Perhaps when the Indians said 
" Cuba " it sounded to Columbus something 
like " Kubla." Nobody knows. Anyway, 
where was he? He must find out. He 
did n't know. Nobody knew until years 
after. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 185 

As he brought his ships to land two little 
canoes came out, but ran away again. The 
Indians on board told him that there were 
mines of gold and j)earls here. The Ad- 
miral thought the bivalve shells on the 
shore indicated that pearls were at hand. 
He named the deep, restful harbor, San Sal- 
vador. It yet bears that name. 

Pinzon believed Cuba must be a city sit- 
uated somewhere on the land where they 
were and that the land was not an island 
at all, but a continent whose king was 
at war with Kubla Khan. But Columbus 
determined to send in his letters to tlie 
king who, he believed, lived in this neigh- 
borhood in a city of Cathay. 

He believed that he ought to make all 
efforts possible to find the 

e ery irs (|j.gat Khan. One Indian 

finally came to shore and 

stayed long enough to let Columbus' Indians 

tell him that they ^verv r.ot subjects of the 



180 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Kubla Khan, and were not enemies, but 
were only good people who went around 
among the islands giving presents. 

Columbus finally came to think this must 
l)e the mainland. If he was actually at 
the mainland then the Great Khan was in 
there somewhere, and he must get out those 
letters. 

He had with him on board two men who 
were willing and well fitted to make the 

trip inland and carry the 
The Next Embassy ^ t^ i • i r^ 

letters. Koderiffo de (ierez 
to the Khan. ^ 

was the name of one and 

Luis de Torrez was the other, a Jew. " He 
could speak Hebrew, Chaldean and even a 
little Arabic," and of course Spanish, per- 
haps French. He was the man to go and 
do the talking, for there was no telling how 
many languages he might find. Two In- 
dians went with them. They took with 
tliem pearl necklaces and such things as 
would best pay their expenses. They were 



COLUMBUS AJN^D WHAT HE FOUND. 187 

to be gone not longer than six days. They 
were to bear the messages of the King and 
Queen of Spain, and to inquire as to the 
Khan's empire and strength, etc. 

All this, sent in to a poor Indian! It is 
almost laughable now, of course, but we 
need not laugh. 

The Admiral spent his time in climbing 
mountains and in hunting and shooting 
game. He shot some beautiful birds which 
he took home with him. He offered rewards 
for any one who would find the most spice, 
nutmegs or cinnamon, gum or any such 
things. 

He found a fine l)each where he had the 
"Santa Maria" and the "Nina" "careened," 
and " calked," so that they might all be 
ready for further work. You remember 
the " Pinta " was " fixed " at the Canary 
Islands. 

The Admiral here heard of the cjreat, uni- 



188 COLUMI?rs AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 

versal, bu2;aboo story which it seems has 

^. ^ ^ , been found everywhere in the 
The One=Eyed '' 

Qj^^^g world, the story of the one- 

eyed giants. 

Homer, the great Greek jD^et, could n't 
have invented the one-eyed man, for we see 
the North American Indians had the same 
story. How does it happen? Can any one 
tell how it is that the Norsemen, the Ara- 
bians, the South Africans, the Greeks and 
our Indians were always scaring themselves 
al)ont the one-eyed man? 

The Indians said there were one-eyed 
giants to the southeast, and that they had 
immense ships and a great deal of mer- 
chandise, plenty of gold and pearls. This 
one eye was in the middle of the forehead, 
and some had heads like dogs. " When 
they caught any one they cut off his head 
and drank his blood." 

These Avere exactly the stories Marco Polo 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 189 

told, SO Columbus was more and uiore sure 
every day that lie was in India. 

He found roots that when roasted tasted 
like chestnuts. These were our sweet pota- 
toes. He also found coffee berries of a dif- 
ferent species from ours. From this very 
spot is exported to-day more coffee than 
from any other market in the world. 

He tried to wait patiently to hear from 

the men as to what they found. But all 

his hopes of Quinsay \vere dashed 
Return -, • ^ 

^ ^, to the OTOund ao-am, when on 

of the " ° ' 

Embassy Tuesday, November 6, the men re- 
turned with no words of Quinsay. 
They could only tell of more Indians — but 
not a word of disappointment came from 
Columbus. No, indeed, he had to keep 
all that to himself, but we know he must 
have felt dreadfully lost after being so 
sure. 

He very patiently heard their story and 
kindly entertained the new Indians who 



190 COLUMBUS AXD AVIIAT HE FOUXD. 

came with them, in the best manner pos- 
sible. 

The men reported that they had traveled 
twelve leagues. Then they found a village 
of fifty houses in which perhaps one thou- 
sand j^eople lived. They had a fine time, 
however, for they had l)een entertained as 
if they had come down from the skies. 
The finest of the Indians had carried them 
ir, their arms to the best house — and hati 
kissed their feet and made them sit on their 
best seats, and eat their best food. Seats 
they had not seen before in this new land, 
and they were only for chiefs to sit on; the 
Indians themselves sat on the ground all 
around them and looked at them while 
they sat down, and fairly worshiped them. 
The women, especially, thought they were 
very handsome, and all offered to go home 
with them. 

" They begged the Christians to stay five 
days, at least. The men sliowed them theii- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 191 

samples of ciuuamon aud pepper and other 
things which the Admiral had given them; 
the women explained to them l)y signs that 
there were great quantities of these things 
near there towards the southeast, hut none 
in that immediate I'egion." 

They found very few cities, but at least 
five hundred people begged to leave every- 
thing and go with them to live in the sky. 
Is not that a yearning for immortal life? 
Poor things, even they did not seem to be 
contented to be only Indians. They wanted 
the next higher state of being if there was 
such a thing. But no, Torrez could only 
consent to take with him their chief and 
his son and a servant. He took these three 
and came back to the ships. 

The Admiral talked with the chief and 
gave as fine a reception as he could, and 
w^ould like to have taken him home to the 
King and Queen, l:»ut the chief was home- 
sick to get back to the woods the very first 



192 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 

night, and Columbus dryly says, "that as 
he had his ship standing on the earth," in- 
stead of heaven, " he did not know what 
whim might take possession of that Indian." 
As he did not want to provoke him, he let 
him go. He promised to return at dawn, 
but they never saw " that Indian " again. 

We hear more about little sticks stuck 
into j)eople's mouths, which are on iire at 
one end, also of sticks being held in their 
hands so as to raise a perfume. How queer ! 
It seems to me the idea of carrying the 
tobacco around in hands instead of mouths 
is a pretty good one, for then it would not 
seem to be so ridiculous; but we have gone 
on with it in our mouths worse than ever 
the native Indians did. 

They describe the cotton plant for the 
first time, just as it grows to-day. This 
makes four great discoveries in the New 
World; Indian corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco 
and cotton. 



COLUMBCTS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 193 

Columbus is greatly impressed with tlie 
native goodness of the Indians. "No mal- 
ice have they," and, " I am convinced, most 
serene Princes, that from the moment that 
this devout, religious peo23le hear their own 
language, they will become Christians." 

Columbus did not know that quiet, igno- 
rant heathenism was much more tranquil 
and easy than Christian civilization; but we 
would rather l)e Christians, and work and 
even fight and learn life and all that is in 
it, than to be heathen, would n't we? 

I hope Christianity has done all its fight- 
ing, but let me tell you something; Chris- 
tianity has not yet -done all its discovering, 
there is a good deal of that left to be done 
by you and me. 



XII. 

Columbus still heard of the wonderful 
place called Boliio, or Barbeque, where the 
giants lived and had plenty of gold. With 
his ships all in good order he sailed 
on toward the " east-southeast," along the 
coast of Cuba. The same stories of Indians 
and birds and beautiful islands went on, 
but no great amount of gold was found. 

On the 20th of November, toward even- 
ing, it was evident that something strange 
had come over the "Pinta" — Columbus 
noticed she seemed to go in the wrong di- 
rection. He hoisted his signals for her to 
follow him, as he was sure there was some 
mistake or misunderstanding, but the "Pinta" 
all at once seemed ^o have some notion or 
other not to follow, but to "run her o^\^n 

boat." 

194 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT TIE FOUND. 195 

This distressed Colunihiis very iniicli; lie 
tliouglit it possible the " Pinta " had diso- 
beyed for some 2;ood reason and 
Pinzon ^ i i i • 

Is Q ne '^'^^^^^^'^ soon return, so he kept his 

signals out all night and waited, 
expecting to have the vessels all together in 
the morning. No, indeed, the " Pinta " was 
nowhere in sight when daylight came again, 
and, sad to say, she seemed to have really 
started for home. Could it be possible 
Alonzo Pinzon would undertake to run 
away in such a manner? If so, he evi- 
dently intended to reach Spain first and tell 
all the news, and lay claim to all the dis- 
covery. Yes, it seemed to be that way. 
Columbus had already mistrusted him since 
Pinzon had showed him " insolence ^"^ and 
disobedience many times. 

Columbus quietly smothered all his pain 
and said little about this treatment, but 
went on bravely with his discovering, using 
the other two boats. He did not want to 



196 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

leave, for he believed if lie could but sail 

on southeast along the coast of this Cuba — 

for he supposed to the day of his death 

that this was the mainland — he would 

surely find the Khan. 

But he gave it up and sailed into the 

open waters again and came to Hayti — or 

San Domingo, as it is now 
Hispaniola. . 

called, ihis island is the His- 
paniola we hear so much about in the life 
of Columbus, for it afterwards came to be 
a sort of home -spot for him. 

He named it Hispaniola because its beauty 
was much like that of Spain. Hispaniola 
means Little Spain. There are some ruins 
to-day in the island Hayti of the buildings 
and forts of these early times. 

About the first thing that happened at 
Hayti was the coming of a whole troop of 
Indians who were frightened at the sight 
of three white men, and ran a^vay so fast 
that one little Indian woman could n't keep 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 197 

up, SO tlie sailors took her with them to 
the ships. The poor thing was frightened 
nearly to death, crying, and supposing she 
would be killed when she was brought in. 

But Columbus soon made her happy 
by giving her a lot of gay clothes to put 
on, and by having her introduced to the 
other Indian women on board. She was so 
happy she did n't want to go home again, 
but Columbus sent her there to tell the 
rest how anxious they were to make the 
acquaintance of all their people. 

Sure enough, a whole lot of them came 
soon after, bowing and scraping and asking 
to be allowed to receive them to their 
houses, the woman and her husband at the 
head, doing the main business of exchang- 
ing courtesies. A fine young chief also 
came, carried on the shoulders of four 
other Indians. 

No " Pinta " was seen yet, so it was 
pretty certain that the " Santa Maria " and 



11)8 COLITMHUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

the little girl boat, "Nina," were to do all 
tlie rest, and to find tlieir way home alone 
when the right time came. Columbus had 
some hope, however, that Alonzo Pinzon was 
still hanging around Cuba looking for gold, 
since he was the one who was so very sure 
it was the mainland. It might be that he 
had not yet gone home and that he would 
still be found. 



XIII. 

When was there a time tliat Christmas had 
no place in oiir country; when there were no 
boys and girls who then had a happy time? 
Can it be that only Indians looked np at these 
skies — Indians who thought that days were 
all alike? They lived here for hundreds of 
years and never heard of Christmas nor of 
what made Christmas, until Columbus came. 
The world over on the Mediterranean Sea 
had, for all this time, kept Christmas as 
Christ's Birthday, but now this New World 
was to have a Christmas also for the very 
first time. C-olumbus had made preparations 

for it, and especially since he 

Guacanagari. • -^ i i -i i i • j? 

wuH invited by the grand chiet- 

tain, Guacanagari, to sail to his port and make 

him a visit. 

This name is a very long one, but it will 

pay you to remember it, for he was the finest 

199 



200 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Indian yet found anywhere by Columbus. 
His people were more civilized than others. 
When Columbus sent some of his men to 
visit him at his home and to take presents, 
they found real streets, that is, houses were 
arranged in some order, and instead of the 
people trading for everything, they desired 
to make gifts, not taking anything in re- 
turn. They thought they were giving things 
to folks from heaven. 

This acquaintance with the chief had been 
made a few days before Christmas ; the 
men had returned to the vessels and all 
was well, more so than at any time since 
the little fleet had left home, except that 
the " Pinta " was missing. On the evening 
of the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, 
everything being so safe and calm, and 
Columbus very tired, having had no sleep 
the night before, and having been on watch 
since early dawn, he concluded he could 
have a night's sleep. He called the 



COLUMBUS AliJJ) WHAT HE FOUND. 201 

ship's master to take the tiller, as nobody 
else was allowed to touch it, and gave him 
orders to watch the weather and to call him 
if there were any changes in it. He then 
wrapped himself up for a sleep. The mas- 
ter then felt everything was so safe it was 
useless for him to stand hy that rudder and 
do what any boy could do when he might 
just as well be asleep, too; so he allowed 
"a boy" to take his place. I imagine the 
boy thought he was the very one to do so 
and that he knew as much as was neces- 
sary, but little were his eyes and his ears 
trained to understand anything unusual. 
Little did any one know about the Gulf 
Stream and its currents. If "the boy" had 
been a young Columbus, he would have 
discovered they were drifting, drifting toward 
danger. How strange that Columbus, who 
had been safe in storms and among rocks, 
and perils of all sorts, was just now very 
unsafe, through this boy's drifting! When 



202 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

tlie awful sound of sand scraping the bot- 
tom of the boat was heard, it must have 
seemed as if it came right up out of the 
middle of the ocean. 

Drifting wrecks are always such a sur- 

^. .,, . prise; all on board soon kne^v 
The Wreck. ^ 

they were not in open sea; they 
kncAV what that sound meant, — they ^vere 
stuck fast in the sand. 

Columbus was the first man on deck, and 
he commanded at once that the little l)oat 
be lowered and an anchor be dropped a 
ways back and an efPort ])e made to dra^v 
the vessel off the sand. The men obeyed so 
far as to get into the little boat, but, dread- 
ful to say, instead of helping to do any- 
thing they put off for the other boat, so as 
to make themselves safe, and left Columbus. 
He then, in his desperation, began to 
lighten the dear old " Santa Maria " l)y 
throwing all the heavy things overboard. 
He cut down the big masts, threw out the 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 203 

cannon, and did all that could be done, 
but it was of no use; it was dark and no- 
body could tell what was going on except 
that they knew they felt the vessel sinking 
more and more solidly into sand. 

It was good punishment for the bad, 
foolish men who paddled off for the other 
boat, that the Captain of it would n't let 
them come aboard; instead of that he hur- 
ried straight to help Columbus, if possible, 
and let them take care of themselves the 
best they could. Nothing could be done 
but to get everything out of the " Santa 
Maria." She was fast going to pieces, for, 
with her hull fast in the sand and the 
waves of the shore twisting her every way, 
she was breaking up. Dear little " Nina " 
was the only boat left, and she had to 
carry one hundred men and get them all 
home again some way. It was a sorrowful 
Christmas morning for Columbus, but he 
kejat up a very brave heart, and his very 



204 COLUMBUS AXD WHAT HE FOUND. 

best friend was tlie Indian Chief, Guacana- 
gari. 

This was Christmas Day, 1492, the first 
one in America. It was spent not in festiv- 
ities as it is now, nor as Columbus had 
planned, for he expected to have a fine 
dinner with the chief; but it was spent in 
saving what they could of the wreck. 

The " Santa Maria " soon fell clear over 
on her side. Columbus and the men had 
to make their home on the " Nina." Diego 
de Arana, one of Columbus' officers and 
relatives who was uncle to little Fernando 
Columbus, and another man, started as soon 
as it was day to tell the King Guacanagari 
of the intended visit and of their troubles. 
He lived four or five miles inland from 
where the wrecked vessel lay. The kind 
king then did more than almost any civil- 
ized king could have done. He opened and 
emptied out many of his houses for them 
to come into. The people helped with all 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 205 

their iniglit to bring everything ashore. 
In a little while the vessel was empty. 
Nothing at all was stolen or injured. 
Everything was honestly cared for, although 
there must have been tempting chances 
to steal pretty things. "Who had ever 
taught these Indians to be honest? 

King Guacanagari came the next day and 
made a call upon Columbus, and when he 
saw he was really troubled it moved him to 
tears. Think of such sympathy! He took 
dinner with Columbus and cheered him by 
telling him of plenty of gold that was to 
be found in the great mountains back of 
them. And he also invited Columbus to 
come to a fine dinner which he prepared 
for him out of conies (rabbits), fish, and 
roots (potatoes, probably), and fruits. Co- 
lumbus found him to be a really kingly 
man, delicate in his habits and manly. 
When he ate (without knives and forks, 
of course) he always washed " his hands 



20r> COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

when lie Lad finisliecl, and i'ul)l)ed them 
^vith sweet and odoriferous herbs." His 
people obeyed him and honoi-ed him, and 
all lived so happily that Columbus and his 
men began to conclude they were pretty 
good people to live with. 

They finished the day with games and 
dances on the part of the Indians, and Co- 
lumbus fired off some of his cannon, which 
sounded through the forests as if the 
heavens would come down. When King 
Guacanagari heard these guns, he was sure 
they had strange and wonderful guests. 
They exchanged a great many presents. 
Two large masks for the face, made of gold, 
were given to Columbus. The king laid his 
crown on Columbus' head and Columbus 
put his beads on the king's neck and all 
were happy. 

After some days Columbus came to the 
conclusion that the l>est thing to do now 
was to build a little fort or house there, 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 207 

out of the wrecked vessel, and leave part 

of the men behind. He would then return 

to Spain and report all his news and come 

again as soon as possible to the men with 

new boats and provisions. 

As they all became more acquainted, this 

plan worked well. The little fort called 

Navidavid (Town of Christmas) 

' went up. There was plenty to 
the First , i • i 

eat and s^ood water to drink. 
Settlement. ^ , 

These Indians were the only 
ones Columbus had found who seemed to 
cultivate the ground and provide for them- 
selves. The only trouble they had was 
from the neighboring islands. The Caribs 
lived on them and were much feared by 
these mild men, but the guns and weapons 
of warfare which Columbus' men had 
brought, seemed to be just what was nec- 
essary for the defense of this little New 
World, and so they made its first settle- 
ment of white people. 



208 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

In the midst of all this confusion and 
what would have been distress to many 
another person, Columbus still found time 
carefully to write in his journal all that 
was necessary. He says, " I shall leave 
here a calker, a carpenter, a gunner and a 
cooper, and many of the other men who 
want to serve your Majesties and do me 
pleasure by finding out where the gold is 
gathered. And thus everything has turned 
out very conveniently for making this first 
settlement." 

The Indians were delighted with the idea, 
and King Guacanagari did his best to tempt 
Columbus himself to stay, by chasing about 
for gold. He brought him quite a large 
amount; but no, Columbus must not stay. 
He must get ready to return to Spain as 
soon as possible. One morning, as King 
Guacanagari was taking breakfast with Co- 
lumbus and deciding about two Indians who 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 209 

would return to Spain with him, word came 
to Columbus that a vessel had been seen. 

Columbus knew it must be Pinzon's. He 
was glad and he was not glad, for you see 
since the " Santa Maria " was gone, Colum- 
bus was obliged to take up his headquarters 
on the " Nina." The captain of the " Nina " 
was a good man and, of course, gave up his 
ship to Columbus. But he was a brother of 
Alonzo Pinzon who had run away, and it 
might happen now, since Columbus was 
really shipwrecked, that they might together 
turn against him and keep him out of com- 
mand. Columbus was, however, ready if 
things should take such a turn. But no 
" Pinta" came around, so things went on in 
preparation for departure. 

Diego de Arana was to be in command 
of the fort. Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo 
de Escobedo were next in duty bound to 
keep perfect order and to "hold the fort" 
until Columbus should return. They kept 



210 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

the " Santa's " little boat for fishino- and 
other things. They had seeds to sow in the 
spring and their main work was to hunt for 
gold. There were thirty-nine of them who 
remained behind, and all felt willins: and 
able to care for themselves. They were Co- 
lumbus' best men. 

On the 4th of January, Columbus was 
finally off. Sad good-byes had been said. 
One brave little company was left in the 
midst of Indians, happy and brave, and the 
other was launching out into the mighty 
Atlantic in a small boat all alone. I am 
sorry to tell you they never saw each other 



XIII. 

Sailing away from the port of the "Town 
of Christmas " on this side of the Atlantic 
was a little different from the leave-taking 
of the port of Palos, on the other side, just 
four months before, was n't it? 

These men had all learned wonderful 
things about a whole wide world in this 
short time. Geography would never again 
be the same. Columbus knew the secret of 
the ages had been unlocked, and that he 
held the key. 

The great New World was now a fact. 
He had found it, that was sure, — but what 
if anything should happen to him and his 
little boat on the way home? He must 
have felt so small, as he realized all this, 
and feared that he never would get home 
with it : as if the waves and winds that 



212 COLUMBUS AISTD AYIIAT HE FOUND. . 

lay between Liiu and home would certainly 
try to tear it away from him. He seemed 
to be almost haunted with this fear. He 
knew well the mighty importance of his 
discovery, and that he was all alone with 
it. No one except two or three of his men 
cared for what was found. Columbus him- 
self had studied the old Ptolemy and knew 
the world needed new geography, and he 
had gone out and made it all. 

Alonzo Pinzon evidently knew it was a 
great find, but he had no such lofty con- 
ception as Columbus of how the very king- 
doms of earth and heaven were to be 
changed. Columbus, of course, did not 
know about it all, but he came as near real- 
izing it as any human being could. He was 
only human, and no doubt had many affec- 
tions set on the earth, as is natural, ])ut his 
treasures lay in the Kingdom of Heaven. 
He was discovering, living, dying for One 
he loved, and that One was his Father 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 213 

above, who blessed it all, and tbat is why 
it made such a great change in the world 
every way. 

He bade good-bye to his New World and 
started toward the southeast along the coast 
of. his Little Spain, not like some mighty 
monarch, but like a very tired man in a 
very little boat. 

He had not sailed far when the "Pinta" 

was seen in the distance. Columbus tried 

to 2:et near enou2:h to com- 
The"Pinta." ° . . ^ . 

municate with Pinzon in order 

to know what might be the explanation of 

his conduct. Pinzon, also, made the effort 

to see him, but winds and waves were too 

high. Columbus retreated to a harbor near 

by, and it was good that Pinzon followed. 

There they settled the matter wisely and 

carefully. Columbus said little. He knew 

the time for punishment or severe words 

was not at hand. He was rather helpless 

away from the help of all power of law 



214 COLUMBUS AJSTD WHAT HE FOUND. 

and law3^ers, l)ut lie knew, and Pinzon 
knew, that the time for liis piinishment 
would come when he reached Spain. 
Every obligation had been made very bind- 
ing, by oaths and papers, and by signing 
of names, and all that. Perfect obedience to 
Columbus was to be carried out during all 
this trip, hence Pinzon must have felt rather 
badly all the way home. 

On they sailed, after a few falsehoods had 
l)een told by Pinzon about losing his way 
on account of a storm. But some of the 
men on board of the " Pinta " told about 
gold the Indians had l)een bringing to them, 
and that Pinzon had l)een making plenty 
of bargains with them all, and had been 
simply cruising around. He had been rather 
lazy, however, for the boat had some worm- 
holes in it which proved he had been 
standing still too much in the water. He 
gave up some of the gold to the treasurer 
on Columbus' boat, Avho had kept a very 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 215 

■strict account of all the trading that had 
been done ever since they struck the islands. 
Columbus describes something like mer- 
maids, but he says they were not very 

beautiful. It is supposed he saw 
Mermaids. ^ ^ 

something like sea calves put 

their heads up out of the water, and as 

every sailor in those days had his eyes 

open for mermaids, Columbus thought this 

might be where they lived. 

Columbus still hoped those giants would 

be found as they left, and sure enough he 

did come to where men 
The Eastern End 

^ „, , , were nerce enou2:h to cut 

of Hispaniola. ° 

their heads open, helmets 
and all, with one blow from their swords. 
They were painted and feathered in war- 
like fashion, and were strong and brave, 
and very different Indians from those at the 
little Christmas Fort. 

Several of Columbus' men finally took a 
little boat and ventured to shore to see if 



216 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUND. 

they could find gold. The great ships of 
merchandise and the one-eyed giants seemed 
to be missing. They found something new 
in the way of Indians and of Indian curiosi- 
ties, but they found no gold. They suc- 
ceeded in trading for a few bows and 
arrows, by being very careful not to of- 
fend. 

Once tlie savage men hiid down all their 
fighting instruments behind trees and came 
out ver}^ carefully to the white men to see 
them. All at once they grew suspicious 
of the strange white inen and concluded 
they had better fight, and ran for their 
swords and bows and arrows and came on to 
the men in a frightful ^vay, as if they were 
going to capture them, bind them and keep 
them as prisoners. The men had to defend 
themselves by shooting, and this soon sent 
the Indians flying for the woods, but two 
of them were killed; the men enjoyed that 
so much they would have gone after them. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 217 

but for the command of the pilot on the 
little boat. 

This was the first blood shed in the long, 
long struggle of years between the white 
man and the red man in our New .World. 

Columbus felt very sorry to have had this 
happen. It was new to have such bloody 
work going on. He was most thankful 
that Fort Navidivad was so far away, for 
these seemed to be very dangerous Indians. 

Columbus writes in his journal of being 
disgusted with the company he was in, and 
of how he hopes to return to the islands 
with good men and vessels. 

The "Nina" had come to be so shaky 
that Columbus could hardly take his obser- 
vations of the stars or the sun. When the 
different pilots compared their calculations 
they did n't agree within a thousand miles. 

Columbus' reckoning was different from 
them all, but his proved in the end to be 
right, but even he was not sure. 



XIV. 

I am sorry to have to tell you of a fear- 
ful storm tliat came to the little boats in 

the very darkest midst of the 
Battling. -^ 

Grreat Atlantic Ocean. Others who 
have since been in these great storms in the 
winter time in great, safe boats, can appre- 
ciate what it must have been for little open 
ones that were too leaky and light to go 
through a peril of any kind. We know the 
end of the story and that they lived through, 
but try to place yourself with them, and 
imagine what it must have been to have 
seen those ugly, forked lightnings in the 
sky in the evening of the 12th of Febru- 
ary! Real terror shot through all their 
hearts at once, for they knew they were in 
serious danger. Columbus had been all 
these five months on the water without any 

battle with a storm, and it had seemed as 

218 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 219 

if God would not let any storm come near 
liim; here was a fierce one, however, but 
his faith made a leap so high he felt 
sure that God would not let anything hap- 
pen. 

The morning of the thirteenth Avas a 
frio-htful one. Nothincr but mountains of 
waves and a dark and dreadful sky, rain, 
thunder and lightning. Only once in a 
while did the two boats catch a sight of 
each other, and that Avas when they each 
happened to be on the top of a wave at 
the same time; then down they woukl pitch 
again out of sight. All sail was furled, 
and no attempt to move on could be made, 
only to keep right side up, if possible, and 
right end foremost. 

All day and night of the thirteenth the 
winds beat on. In the morning of the 
fourteenth the " Pinta " was no more to be 
seen, and the " Nina " battled alone. 

Columbus wrote, while in the midst of ' 



220 COLUMBUS ATSTD WHAT HE FOUND. 

ttese perils, words as calm and strong as if 

lie were in some quiet home. Did you 

ever try to write Avhen you were 

frio-litened or excited? I remem- 
Writes. ^ 

ber trying to write a letter dur- 
ing the Chicago fire, and I think there 
was very little sense in it. 

But below is a part of what he wrote 
while the boat seemed to be going to pieces 
under him. He had a little dry cabin in 
one end. Hear his brave words: 

" Notwithstanding the quantity of Avater 
the ship is making [that is, water coming 
in] I have faith that our Lord who brought 
us here, will in his mercy and loving kind- 
ness watch over my return, for His Ma- 
jesty well knows the toil I suffered before 
I could get away from Castile, and that no 
one was on my side except Him, only be- 
cause He alone could read my heart." 

People often have plenty of faith after 
danger is over, or plenty before danger 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 221 

comes ou, but here is a mail in the very 
jaws of death writing words of trust and 
peace. " / liave faith that our Lord," etc., 
not that I 'loill have or had^ l^ut in the 
midst of it all, he says, " I have." 

In many places his writing shows how 
carefully he searched his heart to see what 
misrht be wroua; inside him. He is evi- 
dently ashamed of being somewhat nervous 
and fretful, for Las Casas says that Co- 
lumbus " confesses that even a gnat annoys 
him, and attributes such Aveaknesses to his 
small amount of faith and his lack of con- 
fidence in divine Providence, while on the 
other hand he is re -animated by the favor 
which he knows God has bestowed upon 
him."^" 

But the storm grew worse and worse. 
Hope was nearly gone. If there was auy- 



*Las Casas was the good missionary to the Indians, 
afterwards; he gives us Columbus' own words, some- 
times, for lie had his journal to copy from. 



222 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

tliino: that could l)e done Columbus wanted 

to do it, or if there was any one of them 

wlio must 2')erform some vow or become a 

pilgrim, it must be done. 

We must remember that in those days 

men knew no l)etter way to find God than 

to dra^v lots sometimes. If they 
The Beans. i tt- i • i 

only round Him, that is the mam 

thing. You remember a woman once really 
found Christ\s love by sim^^ly touching the 
hem of His garment. Las Casas says " Co- 
lumbus commanded that they should draw 
lots for a pilgrimage to Santa Maria de 
Gaudalupe, when a candle weighing five 
pounds of wax should be taken her, and 
that all make a vow that he on whom the 
lot should fall should accomplish the pil- 
grimage. He commanded that as many 
smooth beans (or peas) be brought him as 
there were persons on the ship, to mark a 
cross on one of them with a knife, to then 
put them all into a bag and to stir them 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND, 223 

up well. The Admiral was tlie first to put 
his hand in. He pulled out the smooth pea 
marked by a cross; it was upon the Ad- 
mii'al that the lot fell, and from that time 
he considered himself a pilgrim and as 
obliged to go and accomplish the vow 
which had just been made." 

It was curious that Columbus himself 
should draw this, but he was as ready to 
make the pilgrimage as anybody, as soon 
as they should see Spain again. 

Of course the one to Avhom such lots fell 
always felt as if he was somehow to blame 
for all the trouble. 

It must have been a terrible trial to Co- 
lumbus to draw this bean, but he did, and 
no doubt a most awful searching of his 
brave heart went on still deeper. Columbus 
was not so much afraid to die as he was 
anxious for his secret, that it be not lost. 
What a mighty desire he had to reach 
home with his 



224 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

The storm went ou. All prayed and 
wept together. The little " Nina " mounted 
one wave after another only to pitch down 
again on the other side. Nobody could eat 
anything or sleep. In fact, they did n't 
have much on board to eat. Columbus was 
iinall}^ quite ill. His legs were so badly 
swollen from so much fatigue and from 
gout, that he had to stay in bed some of 
the time. 

The next day they concluded to put the 
beans into the bag and draw lots again, and 
the one who should draw the bean with 
the cross on it should make a pilgrimage 
to Notre Dame de Loretto. This, Las Casas 
says, is " one of the estates of the Pope, a 
neighborhood where the Holy Virgin has 
done and does still a great many wonder- 
ful miracles." It was probably one of the 
greatest pilgrimages that could be per- 
formed. 

Columbus did n't draw the lot this time, 



COLUMBUS AITD WHAT HE FOUND. 225 

but another poor man did. His name was 
Pedro de Villa. The Admiral helped him 
out by promising him to pay the expenses 
of this pious journey, for it was a long 
ways to go. The storm still went on. 

Columbus retired at last to his cabin and 
did what no one on board knew anything 
about. How he ever had the strength to do 
it is a wonder. He took out his journal 
and made a copy of it, and carefully 
wrapped it up in oiled silk and then 
covered it with wax all water-tight, then 
put it in some sort of a small cask, and 
threw it into the waves, for he thought, 
and wrote down afterwards, that if all 
were to perish he would try to save the 
news of his discovery, and somewhere^ 
sometime, some one might find it. Would n't 
you like to find that? No one ever has. 
He allowed his sailors to think he was per- 
forming some secret vow to God, when they 
saw him throw it overboard, for if the men 



226 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

had known how Columbus seemed to be 
l^reparing for death they would have lost 
all hope. He did n^t let them know how 
heavy his own heart was. 

Once more, for the third time, they j)ut 
the beans into the bag and stirred them 
Avell and drew lots. Again Columbus drew 
the rnarhed lean. This seemed so sad that 
for some reason they all vowed to make 
the pilgrimage together to the first 
church they should ever see. Columbus' 
keen mind jumped at a thought when the 
lot fell to him the second time, which 
seemed to have some comfort in it, and 
that was if he was twice chosen to make 
tlie pilgrimage, he surely was to be saved, 
and this may account for all choosfug to 
make the jjilgrimage with him and tl us be 
saved, too. 



XV. 

Four days and three nights the danger 
lasted, but on the morning of the 15th the 

storm was over, the sky clear. 
Land and 

and, best ot all, land was m 
Clear Sky. 

sight. God had heard and an- 
swered them. The great sea yet rolled and 
swelled, and still beat them about, but they 
could make a little headway. 

The morning was like a child's sweet 
face after a deep cry. Sobs and tears, 
waves and fog and chill, were not gone, 
but the terror and hurt had passed away. 
The sea always seems to sob after a storm 
like a heart that has been stirred up. 

Columbus and the men all gave God the 
jDraise for their escape, and bustled about 
to get ready for the land they saw in the 
distance. Some said it was the Madeira 
Islands, some said it was the Azores, some 

that it was the coast of dear old Spain 

227 



228 DOLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

itself. Closer and closer tliey came along- 
side — to what? For three days, sometimes 
in thick fogs, they tried to find out. On 
Sunday the nineteenth they found a little 
harbor in which to cast anchoi-, but the 
cable broke and they had to go out to sea 
again in order to be safe. They could n't 
tell where they were until at last they sent 
a little boat over the waves to land. 

The boat returned (with three men left 

behind) to tell them all that they were 

before St. Mary's Island, which is 

one of the Azores. Ah! the Azores 
Azores. 

islands belong to Portugal! In a 
moment Columbus was on his guard. He 
asked why those three men stayed on the 
land. The answer was that the governor 
of the island, Juan de Castenada, was so 
wonderfully interested in their marvelous 
story that he kept them as guests, and 
wanted to hear all the strange news they 
had to tell. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 229 

Oh, he seemed very kind. He sent out 
wold for the commander to come to see 
him and tell him how it was they had 
lived through the dreadful storm. He sent 
them chickens to eat, and bread and fruit, 
and seemed very polite, indeed. How good 
the food must have tasted, for all on board 
had not tasted anything but bread and wine 
for a long time. 

Columbus sent back thanks, but declined 
to make the visit to the governor of the 
island, though he remembered the vow 
they had all made. 

He could see a chapel dedicated t<> the 

Virgin, not very far from the shore. It 

was not safe, he was sure, for 

them all to leave the vessel at one 
the Vow. 

time, so they divided themselves 
into two parties. The first half of them 
were to go and make the pilgrimage and 
return, then the second half of them Av^ould 
g-o and do the same. Columbus himself 



2oO COLl'MBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

stayed with tlie secoud half. The first 
party landed in a small boat, barefooted, 
and carefully and conscientiously carried 
out their vow. Columbus watched them 
disappear into the woods; waited and 
watched for them to return. Instead of 
seeing what he was looking for, he only 
saw, after awhile, a great excitement on the 
island. People were riding around on 
horses and with their swords in their 
hands; there seemed to be trouble. 

Dear, good Columbus had no such recep- 
tion as this in his Indies, where " no storms 
ever came." Here he was with half his 
men on the white man's land, facing some- 
thing that looked more like war than any- 
thing he had seen before at all. He 
ordered every man to be ready for fight if 
it was necessary, l)ut to keep hidden, for 
there was a boat-load, armed, coming to 
them with the governor, and Columbus did 
not want to show fight unless he must. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 231 

The governor came alongside of the 
" Nina " and asked boldly to see the ship's 

commander. I will not take 

The Two . , , n 1 ;i i 

time to tell you now the two 
Commanders "^ 

j^^^^ commanders settled the trouble^ 

but it was not until after a 
great deal of very wise and dignified deal- 
ing on the part of Columbus that all was 
quiet. 

When the governor of the island found it 
was not safe to trifle with the Admiral of 
the Ocean Sea, who was in the royal serv- 
ice of the King and Queen of Spain, he 
soon " backed down," as boys say, and 
allowed Columbus and his men to do what 
was but right, and that was to refresh them- 
selves and to perform their religious vows. 

At first, you see, this governor supposed 
it was some crazy little boat-load of peo- 
ple who had been Avashed up on his shore. 
He supposed, also, that they were weak, and 
that they had been out discovering some of 



232 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

tlie islands or lands belonging to the Por- 
tuguese, and tliat liis business was to seize 
them; but when he found out who it was, 
he was very much ashamed. 

The weather was still so bad that Colum- 
l^us had not much opportunity to mend his 

poor little boat, or mend him- 
Xhc 

self, but he did the best he could 
Weather. ' 

for several days and then vent- 
ured on again into the deep sea waves, 
bound for Spain, on the 24th of February. 
For three days they went on comfortably, 
when another storm struck them which was 
worse than ever. They gave themselves up 
for the fourth time to the casting of lots, 
and, strange to say, Columbus again drew 
the marked bean. 

It was midnight of Saturday, March 2, 
when this happened. Kain fell in torrents. 
Two long, terrible days of it and then, O, 
joy! land Avas again in sight! 

Columbus now began to find himself in 



COLUMBirS AISTD WHAT HE FOUND. 233 

the midst of business. He wrote a letter 

and sent it by a courier to the King and 

Queen of Spain. There were no postoffices 

and railroads, remember. Everything must 

be sent on horseback or mule- back, 

or by footmen. News spread from 
Kings. "^ ^ 

mouth to mouth as fast as ever news 
could, about the little weather-beaten boat 
coming into Portugal with most wonderful 
stories to tell about great discoveries. Co- 
lumbus, who used to l)e hanging around 
the Court and begging somebody to help 
him do this very thing, had just been doing 
it all. 

He wrote another letter to another king, 
the King of Portugal, asking if he might 
come uj) to Lisbon and repair himself and 
his boat for the rest of his journey home. 
It was n't very safe to stay at the little 
town where he was, because great reports 
of gold and spices, jewels and such things, 
had brouglit crowds to see him. 



284 coLUMHUs Aisri) what he foitnd. 

The letter from the King of Portugal 

invited him to come to visit him at once. 

He also ordered everybody to 

o-ive Columbus every possible 
Invitation. ^ ^ . . 

attention, and to treat him like 

a lord, free of all expense. 

On the 8th of Marcli he had a grand 

letter from the Queen of Spain, brought 

by a special person, Don somebody. This 

_ was the very l)eo:inning of 

The Queen's -^ ^ ^ 

Letter honors which showered them- 

selves on our Columbus for 
the next few months. Such awful ups and 
downs came to Columbus all his life that 
it makes a real fairy tale, does it not? 

Here he Avas now, a \vonderful man in 
the eyes of kings and ({ueens and nobles, 
priests and bishops and archbishops, even 
lip to cardinals and the Pope, but only a 
few days ago he was all alone in a little 
boat ready to be drowned and nobody ever 
to hear of him airain. Yet Columbus Mm- 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 235 

self stayed just the same, for lie knew very 
well liow his glory came. He knew his 
best friend, who went with him through his 
awful trials of waiting and poverty, and 
his perils, and had always known his heart, 
was the same One who had brought him 
his little human glory. 

When Columbus and his pilot reached the 
palace of the King of Portugal, grand peo- 
ple came away out to meet them and they 
were escorted into the King's presence with 
all manner of pomp and ceremony and 
politeness. 

Do you remember how he left Portugal 
only eight years before? ISTow the King 
makes a great ado about him. He invites 
Columbus to sit doioii in his presence. 
"What a wonderful thing!" everybody says. 
Who ever heard of anything so fine as to 
be asked to sit before a king? 

Columbus did n't care very much about 
it all, l)ut he sat down, of course. He was 



28() COLrMBUS AND WHAT IIK FOUND. 

on tile watch, for Ik^ kiu^w^ P(ji'tiigal would 
feel jealous. 

Sure enough, the King, with all polite- 
ness, began to inquire about certain treaties 
between Spain and Portugal, and was very 
diligent in finding out exactly where Co- 
lumbus had been. 

Columbus very carefully told him just 
where it was. He had not been near the 
Portuguese lands, exce23t to refresh himself, 
and his discoveries were away beyond any- 
where that any man, so far as he knew, had 
ever been before. He told him how he had 
strictly obeyed the commands of Spain to 
keep clear of territory l^elonging to Por- 
tugal. 

It is not surprising that av icked men coun- 
seled the King to try to keep all this glory 
for Portugal, if possible. They said if 
only Columbus would somehow sell out to 
them all his news, it would be a great 
thing. Columbus was as much a Portuguese 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUISTD. 237 

as lie was a Spaniard, and why need he 

take all his discoveries to Spain? It is also 

(jiiite true that some wicked men 
Wicked 

proposed quietly to kill Columbus 

so as to prevent his ever being 

heard of again, or going to Spain; but the 

King himself did not listen to any such l)ase 

proposals. He was too wise. He may not 

have been too good. 

Every honor attended the hero back to 
his little boat. Cavaliers rode beside him 
and his pilot. Mules were presented to 
them to ride upon, and an offer was made 
to escort him all the way through the coun- 
try to his home, instead of his again trust- 
ing himself to go around by the sea. 

But Columbus preferred to take his little 
boat and arrive at the little town of Palos 
by himself, if possible. So on the 15th of 
March, just a month from the time he 
landed in the fog at St. Mary's, there he 
was at sunrise lookins; ao-am at the dear 



238 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

old Anclalusian coasts. The Aveatlier heing 
fine, at noon lie stepped liis foot into the 
dear little home town of Palos, 

There was no way for any one to know 
they were coming, so what a joy it must 
have been to surprise everybody. I wonder 
what the Indians thought of the white man's 
home ? 



XVI. * 

The bells were mug and the shops were 
shut.^ and the whole town of Palos joined 
in devout admiration of the Admiral and 
his men, and especially of the Indians. 
Friends and relatives crowded close to wel- 
come them home. 

It was Friday when they arrived, the 
same day of the week as that on which 
they sailed away a little more than eight 
months before. What wonderful changes! 
Juan Perez was there, ready to welcome his 
brave, true-hearted friend into the very 
holiest corner of his heart. How blessed it 
all seemed, to think that the man who came 
to him poor, so sadly alone in the world, 
had gone out and really done this thing. 

And then we must remember they did 

not yet know how great a thing it was, as 

we now know it to be. It is easy to under- 

239 



240 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

stand, I think, that it was God, sure enough, 
^V'ho pointed this man Columbus to accom- 
plish a deed that will always mean so much 
to the world. He never did it as only 
a man. He lived and moved in God, and 
that is why he did God's work. 

As soon as it was possible, the men all 
came together and finished their humble 

march, which had so failed at St. 
The Vow. 

Marys Island, to the iirst chapel 

they should see, for they remembered the 

peril they came through. 

Others remembered it, too, for they had 
painful knowledge of how stormy the 
weather on the seas had been. Many had 
given them up as lost, and, sure enough, 
many were sadly missing. Where was the 
"Pinta"? 

So it was a most solemn procession they 
made as they all marched in their bare feet 
and legs to the church of St. George. 
Great peace and joy and thanksgiving 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 241 

swelled glad hearts as the chants were given 
and masses said for those storm -tossed, 
weather-beaten seamen. But other hearts 
must have sunk down in great sorro^v over 
the lost ones. Ah, how sweet it was to 
have actually lived through it all and 
triumphantly to give thanks! 

Many, many things were to be attended 
to by Columbus besides his religious duties. 
Many accounts were to be settled, and re- 
ports to be put into perfect shape. The 
King and Queen were at Barcelona, quite 
a long ways from Palos. 

What do you suppose then happened? 

There came sailing into the harbor another 

little storm -tossed boat, only a 
More News. <» i • 7 

day or two after, and it vias t/ie 

" PintaP What a surprise ! The " Nina " 

supposed of course the " Pinta " had gone 

down in the storm, and of course the 

"Pinta" had thought the "Nina" was lost. 

What an excitement must have stirred the 



242 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

little town! Here were all the Pinzon 
family supposing their proud Alonzo lost, 
))ut here he was returned to them; and 
others just as loving, were no doubt as 
haj^py as they. 

The story of Pinzon's home-coming, how- 
ever, is very sad indeed. During the awful 

storms, when the "Piuta" was 

Alonzo . . 1 /-I 1 1 

_. missmo;, you remember, Columbus 

Pinzon. rt' J ' 

could n't think it possible she 
had slipped off again as she had before 
when cruising among the islands; so of 
course it was supposed the " Pinta " went 
down. Instead of that she was marvelously 
saved, and for some reason was blown off 
north, and came into the Bay of Biscay, 
touching Spain away on that side. This 
was Alonzo Pinzon's tempting chance to 
take all the glory of the discovery to him- 
self. Tie believed Columbus and the " Nina " 
were in the bottom of the sea, and that no 
one would ever know how it was. He was 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 243 

as nearly worn out as Columbus was, with 
all the exposure and excitement, but he 
arranged a report to suit himself and sent 
it to the King and Queen. He reported 
Columbus lost, and Columbus reported Pin- 
zon lost. 

These two different reports must have 
sounded very strangely. Pinzon's was re- 
ceived first, and the Queen was 

„ e-reatly grieved that Columbus was 

Reports, o J & 

lost. O what glory Pinzon felt 
that he was about to receive! He thought 
of all he alone had to tell of the sufferings 
and heroic deeds he had passed through, 
and of the riches that were waiting for 
him. Columbus was at last out of his way. 
But what a mighty shock he felt when 
he came rounding the Andalusian hills, and 
saw ahead of him, all safely harbored at 
home, the little " Nina." In a moment all 
was lost to him. His heroic deeds were as 
rags. Nothing counted now, for he had an 



1>44 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

awful lie beneath it all. What a shame 
that he should have spoiled all his noble 
work that way, for he had been a great 
help to Columbus. Do you see how Co- 
lumbus had just let God take care of Pin- 
zon's wrong-doings, and sure enough, God 
did. Alonzo Pinzon betrayed himself. No 
one else did. And the Pinzon family, for 
twenty years after, brought lawsuits and 
troubles of all kinds for Columbus' descend- 
ants, in trying to defend this poor man, 
and trying to believe and to make every- 
body else believe that there was some truth 
in his claims ao:ainst Columbus. 

He never met Columbus again. When he 
saw the " Nina " all truthfully lying in the 
harbor of Palos ahead of him, he preferred 
not to be seen by any one, so he had the 
"Pinta" leave him a little below the harbor, 
nearer his home; he went there, and in a 
few days he died, rendering up a full and 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 245 

real repoi-t to God, ^v'llo knew the trutli all 
the time. 

The "Pinta" with all the others on 
board came on up to Columbus, the real 
commander, and reported itself to him. He 
took charge of its accounts, and all its 
affairs and Indians, and was a desperately 
busy man, forgetting that he was worn out 
and sick, just home from a terrible journey. 
How sad that there seems to have been no 
one to welcome him to a nice home and 
to care for him personally ! No one is 
homelike to him except Juan Perez, who 
entertains him at the dear old Convent 
when Columbus keeps still long enough. 

The most important thing to be done, 
however, is to lay this whole affair before 
the Queen. She is the one most interested 
and most responsible. She is at Barcelona. 
How shall he reach her? By boat? No, 
the poor little boats are worn and almost 
useless. There are no railroad trains over- 



246 COLUMBUS AND AVIIAT HE FOUXI). 

land, l)ut animal feet and human feet can 
get tliem all there, though it is a distance 
of about four hundred miles. 

He received a grand reply from the King 
and Queen, who addressed him as " Don 
Christopher Columbus, Our Admiral of the 
Ocean Sea, and Viceroy and Governor of the 
islands discovered in the Indies." This is a 
long, great name, a very different one from 
Christoval Colon, and one that was a great 
deal more l)other to him every way. 

They promised him wonderful rewards 
and glory, and asked him to hasten his 
march to them. Their letter to Alonzo 
Pinzon was written about the same time, 
and it was crushing. He received it shortly 
before he died. How very different the 
two men must have felt, for one was guilty 
and the other was not. Columbus suffered, 
too, in after years, and did not receive all 
the rewards that ^vere so freely promised 
him, but his suffei'ings were never to be 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 247 

compared witli Pinzon's, for he never was 
false. He never betrayed a single trust. 
He Avas true to every one and everything. 
Pinzon died and others died all around Co- 
lumbus, as false as falsehood itself, during 
the terrible tasks of finding our New 
World, but Columbus was sweetly kept 
from falling from the truth. He suffered, 
but not like Pinzon, ever. 

He finally had his whole array of Indians 
and peacocks, the great snake-skins, canoes, 

arrows, spices, tobacco, India- 
The March. ' l ' ' 

rubber, j^otatoes, some gold, and 
the many, many things he had brought, 
with all the sailors, pilots and men, on the 
march to Barcelona. 

The whole country was wild with excite- 
ment, and the people would hardly let 
them pass along, but in a month they all 
arrived at Barcelona. Columbus himself was 
on a horse at the rear, with Spanish soldiers 
to wait upon him and ride beside him. 



248 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

The King and Queen made great prep- 
arations for this recej^tion. They were 
seated on their thrones side by 
side, under a great, gorgeous 
eauopy made of gold and silk, 
and placed in the puldic park where all the 
nobles could see the fine spectacle. Co- 
lumbus entered the city as royally, and 
everything was prepared for as grand a 
reception as any king could expect. Co- 
lumbus was almost dazzled with it all, but 
he did n't forget himself, and ^vhen he 
finally came before the King and the sweet 
Queen he so loved, he fell on his knees, 
expecting only to kiss their hands. Instead, 
what do you think? The whole of Spain 
was actually overcome mtb surprise. They 
took him by the hand and asked him to 
stand hefpre them. More, tliey stood up 
before Imn. This was something so great to 
some people they could never get over it. 
They were bitterly jealous; yet through all 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 249 

the envy and the joy and triumph, Columbus 
was very sure of God, of Isabella and her 
friend, the first lady, and of Juan Perez, 
also the treasurer, Luis de Sant Angel, and 
Alonzo de Quintanillo. 

The next few days were great days of 
thanksgiving. The royal pair themselves 
knelt and prayed immediately, be- 
fore everybody, after they received 
giving. 

Columbus, and from that on, the 

royal service of solemn music seemed to 
lift everybody " into heaven," says Las 
Casas. 



XVII. 

I, for one, am very sorry we must come to 
our last words about this wonderful man, 
for there are three more voyages I might 
tell you about. But they would fill an- 
other book, and I can give you but a 
glimpse of the remaining days of Colum- 
bus' life. 

He lived only ten or twelve years after 
the first great voyage. You remember he 
was nearly sixty years old when he made 
it. 

" His strong youth Av^asted " before the 

"sealed gates'' of opportunity; but in spite 

of his age, and wornout-ness, he still went 

on and made three more voyages. They 

were not so important as the first one, yet 

they were just as interesting, for they show 

us how a great nature can endure suffering 

and defeat, as well as success. 

250 



COLUMBUS AND WJLAT UE FOUND. 251 

He never at any time lost faitli in God, 
and lie was always liappy of heart, but he 
found out in a few years that there was 
nothing more for him to do but to go to 
heaven. 

Queen Isabella and Ferdinand, you see, 
were made most glorious by this great dis- 
covery. Portugal was wild with envy over 
it all. She could, hardly keep her ships 
and sailors from going to the Indies, also. 
It was like holding a lot of dogs by their 
chains, but they dared not let them loose. 
After that New World had been found, 
every country, as fast as it heard the story, 
wanted to have a chance there, but only 
Spain had it, the rest had lost it. Every- 
body wanted to go back with Columbus, 
and the Queen began to hurry him off in 
her first letter to 

" Clwistoplier Coluinhun^ the Admiral of 
tlie Ocean Sea., and Viceroy and Governor 
of tlte Islands discovered in the l7idiesy 



252 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Ferdinand was quite equal to all the 
great business there was in hand. The 
first thing he did after glorifying Colum- 
bus all he could, riding out with him, giv- 
ing him a house of his own to live in, — he 
went straight to the Pope and secured his 
authority and power over " The Indies." 
Isabella had plenty of help in Ferdinand 
then, and some very careful statesmanship was 
required. He was equal to it, however, and 
Avatched everything and everybody and held 
on to all there was. He made it safe for 
SjDain to go ahead and discover the rest of 
the world. He forgot, though, to keep all 
safe for Columbus in his old days, but he 
made it as glorious for himself as he could. 

Columbus was invited to a great party 
once, by a grand Cardinal. Of course the 
Admiral sat in the best seat. The other 
guests were much distressed at all the 
honors coming to the man who once was 
nothing. They talked at the table very 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 253 

much as some people talk nowadays, 

about Low, after all, tliey did u't 

believe it was anythino; very 

Columbus' ITT 

_ . 2:reat to liave made that dis- 
Puzzles. ^ 

covery. 
But Columbus heard them talking, and 
his mind ran back to the long, long time 
when he wasted so many years; how he 
waited to control the selfish kings, how he 
suffered in managing those sailors on the 
way, how he so carefully sailed around 
among rocks and sands and among new 
people and strange waters; he thought of 
the perilous storm, but he knew it was no 
use to say anything to such men. He no- 
ticed a dish of eggs, and remembered an old 
puzzle; he was fond of jokes, you know. 
This one nobody knew about, he was sure, 
so he just took a round, beautiful egg in 
liis hand and asked if any one could make 
it stand on end. They said, " Why, no, 
nobody can make an egg stand up." "Yes, 



254 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

it can be done," Columbus said. They 
asked liiiu to do it, then; they would like 
to see him make an egg stand on end. 

Columbus took it and gently tapped it 
on the table so that the shell broke just 
enough to make a flat little place, and there 
it stood, calmly as an egg could stand, right 
before them all. Well, it was a great joke. 
Nobody could say a word at first, then they 
said, " Why, that is easy. We could have 
done that." " Yes," Columbus said, " after 
somebody has told you how! It is just so 
with crossing the Ocean Sea. It is easy 
after some one has shown you how." 

Ah, Columbus must have felt that his dis- 
covery of the Indies, like the discovery of 
making an egg stand on end, was no more 
his own. It was gone out of his hand for- 
ever. He was glad it was true that he 
had made the world so much larger, and he 
was humbly proud of the great blessing it 
would forever be, yet he very naturally did 



1 



COLlTMBUS AJSTD WHAT HE FOUISTD. 20D 

not want to be forgotten or neglected, or 

liatecl, after lie liad done so mucli, so lie 

worked liard to do the best lie could for 

everybody, supposing lie would be taken 

care of. 

By the 25th of September he was ready 

to sail again, with fifteen hundred men and 

seventeen vessels. Horses, mules, do- 
Second • . 1 r. n 1 

mestic animals or all sorts, seeds. 
Voyage. 

grains of all kinds, were sent 
along, so that it was a kind of Noah's ark 
which sailed off from Cadiz for the Indies. 
Fine, lazy men went along, expecting to 
pick up gold. They landed among the Car- 
ibbee Islands. The Caribs were not one- 
eyed or rich, after all. They were only 
wild, man-eating Indians. They went on 
to the island of King Guacanagari — called 
Hispaniola, by Columbus, you remember — 
expecting to delight the hearts of the 
thirty- nine men who had stayed behind to 
hold Fort Navidavid. 



/ 



256 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

So they sailed up in front of the island, 

and fired guns for a nice surprise, but not 

an answer came back. Hearts 

sank as the truth revealed itself. 
and Men 

A„ ^ JNot a thino* was left but ashes 

All Gone. ^ 

and bones. It was a sad shock 
to Columbus. He found the poor Indian 
king hidden away with a few of his men. 
The Caribs had been there, and the men 
had not always done right, so all was gone. 

Bravely Columbus rallied the spirits of 
all, kept friendship with the Indian king, 
and began to settle. But before winter was 
over so much sickness came to the men that 
Columbus had to send some of them home. 
They went and told dreadful stories of hard- 
shijis, and, worst of all, they told false tales 
about Columbus. 

New settlements were then made on 
the beautiful green island, one was called 
Isabella, the other Santo Domingo. It has 
lasted from that time to this. But matters 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 257 

grew worse, and in the spring Columbus 
liad to go to Spain for new supplies. We 
are giving only glimpses, yet you can see 
from them, how the difficulties began to 
gather. 

It was simply too great a discovery for 
any one generation to handle. It was two 
hundred years before it was possible for 
human nature to change even a little part 
of this great, wild land into anything like 
a country, so we need not be surprised that 
Columbus could not do it in a half dozen 
years. But he did all he could, and if those 
who were with him had but done the same 
there would have been much less trouble. 

When Columbus went to Spain the second 
time he left his brother, Bartholomew Co- 
lombo, in charge of the Colony. He was 
almost as brave a man as our hero. 

On his third voyage, made with six ves- 
sels, Columbus discovered the wonderful 
waters that seemed to come from the " Roof 



258 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

of the World." He went soutli of what is 

now called the Gulf of Mexico, to the 

mouth of the Orinoco. He discovered an 

island, which he named Trinidad, because it 

was to him like God, in his " Trinity," 

coming up out of the water in answer to 

prayer. 

From this point he returned to Hispan- 

iola and a new governor arrived at the 

island, Bobadilla by name. He 

_ had no business to do as he did 

Bobadilla. 

and Queen Isabella did not in- 
tend he should, but he arrested Columbus 
and his brother, and put them into a dark 
prison for a few days, then put chains on 
Columbus and sent them both home. There 
were no questions, and no trial, nothing 
that could explain to Columbus what was 
going on, but there he was helpless with 
nearly all the men turned against him. 

The end of it was that Isabella was very 
sorry and tried to make it all right with 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 259 

Columbus by apology, but Columbus' heart 
was broken. She also thought she could 
fix matters by appointing a new governor 
to go and bring Bobadilla home, and so he 
did, but Columbus' grand " governorship " 
as " Viceroy- General of the Indies," was 
gone. Even good Queen Isabella could 
not restore his rights to him. 

This new governor was Orvando. He 
sailed for the Indies, and Columbus stayed 
at home this time. Spain was growing more 
and more glorious, Columbus less and less 
so. Though he was weak, he could not rest 
from doing something, so Isabella gave him 
four little ships, with which to make a 
fourth voyage. The first voyage, you know, 
was with three vessels, the second with 
seventeen, the third with six, the last was 
with only four, and they were very poor 
ones. 

" This voyage was crowded with misfort- 
unes, but more romantic than the boldest 



260 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

imagination would have ventured to put 

forth as fiction." Columbus was per- 

_ ^. mitted to make it in the hope 
Fourth ^ 

and Last *^^* ^^^ might find a strait, 
Voyage. through which he could pass on 
to the real Land of Cathay. He 
was ordered not to stop at his own island, 
for the new governor would not care to 
see him. 

Fernando Columbus, fourteen years old, 
went with his father on this tri]), and I am 

going to let him tell you some- 

Fernando .i • i, x -j. • i • 

thmg about it m his own 

Columbus. 

words."* He says, " ilie Ad- 
miral in a small time had rigged and pro- 
vided four ships, the biggest of seventy, 
the least of fifty Ton Burden, and one hun- 
dred and forty men and boys, of lohich 



*He grew up to be a great scholar aud wrote his 
father's life. AVe are indebted, to Mr. James W. Ells- 
worth's valuable library of American literature, for 
the use of this rare old book. 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 261 

number 1 was one.'''' What a great jour- 
ney for a boy of fourteen years to make! 
He saw some awful suffering before lie 
was home again, but he tells it all in the 
most simple manner. 

Columbus had to have a better vessel, and 
on this account and for refuge from a storm 
he saw coming, he stopped be- 
fore his old place, "San Do- 
Happening, ^ 

mingo," and asked if he might 
come into port. Fernando tells how it all 
was: 

" Thence we took the way for San Do- 
mingo, the Admiral having a mind to Ex- 
change one of his Ships for another. It 
could carry.no sail, but the side would lie 
almost under Water, which was a hindrance." 
How do you suppose a boy enjoyed the 
excitement of a vessel that would not stand 
up straight? 

" So that the new governor might not be 
surprised at our unexpected arrival, the 



2<)2 COMMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

Adminil sent Peter de Torreros, Captain of 
.one of the Ships, to him, to signify what 
occasion he had to change that Ship; for 
which reason, as also because he appre- 
hended a great Storm was coming, he desired 
to secure himself in that Port, advising him 
not to let the Fleet sail out of port for Eight 
days to come; for if he did it would be in 
great danger." 

Now listen; this " Fleet," which was about 
to " sail " out of the Port for Spain, must 
have been an intensely interesting one to 
Columbus, for it was one of several vessels, 
containing much gold, his own among the 
rest, and it also was just taking Bobadilla 
to Spain so that he might give an account 
of his behavior to Columbus. 

Here was this wise old sailor, Columbus, 
kindly advising them to wait eight days, 
for he believed a great storm was coming; 
and sure enough, such a storm came that 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 2()3 

Columbus' enemies afterwards l)elieve(l " He 
liad raised that storm hy Art Magick." 

They all had great excitement and suffer- 
ing every way. After the account of the 
storm, Fernando then tells us a fish story: 

" While the Admiral gave his men a 
breathing spell after the Storm, it being 

one of the Diversions used at Sea to 
A Fish 1 • 1 

r ish, when there was nothmsi; else 
Story. ' ^ 

to do, I will mention a Fish called 
Saivina, as big as half an ordinary Bell. 
This fish lying asleep above the Water was 
struck with a Harping- Iron from the Boat 
of the Ship and held so fast that it could 
not break loose, but being tied with a long 
Rope to the Boat drew it after it as swift as 
an Arrow, so that those aboard the Ship 
seeing the Boat scud about, and not knowing 
the occasion, were astonished it should do 
so without the help of the Oar till at last 
the Fish sunk, and being drawn to the Ship's 
side was there hauled up with the Tackle." 



264 COLUMBUS AND AVHAT HE FOUND. 

Au interesting sight from the ship must 
have been this little boat-load of men flying 
like " an arrow " through the water, pulled 
by a fish! But the " harj)ing-iron " had 
put a hole into him and the fish could n't 
keep up his chase for a very long time, so 
he sank helpless and they were then able 
to pull him up into the ship instead of the 
fish pulling them, 

Fernando gives us a great many inter- 
esting and thrilling stories, one about an 

eclipse which occurred when for 
The Ecliose 

eight months they had been ship- 
wrecked, and were sick, and 
many of the men had gone almost mad, 
some had died, others had run away to live 
with the Indians, and there was none to 
help but God. Columbus and his men 
were starving, but their lives were saved 
by a very ingenious thought that came to 
the Admiral. 

Perhaps he had read of Tiberius, a great 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 265 

Roman general, doing something of the same 
kind once upon a time, but this is what 
Fernando says of his father: 

" He bethought himself that within 3 
days there would be an eclipse of the Moon 
in the first part of the night, and then 
sends for an Indian of Hispaniola, who was 
with us, to call the principal Indians, saying 
he would talk with them about a matter 
of concern. He ordered the Interpreter to 
tell them; That we were Christians and Be- 
lieved in God, who dwelt in heaven and 
took care of the Good and Punished the 
Wicked; that seeing how negligent they 
were in bringing Provisions for our Com- 
modities, God had appointed to give them 
a token in the Heaven." 

He then told them to look into heaven 
that night and see the moon grow bloody 
and then dark, and they would then see 
God would punish them if they did not do 
right. Sure enough, the moon grew bloody 



266 COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 

and dark — and the Indians took notice of 
it, and were so frightened they came run- 
ning from all parts loaded with provisions, 
crying and lamenting, and prayed the Ad- 
miral by all means to intercede with God 
for them. So Columbus did intercede in 
good earnest for them to learn something 
from it all, for he was much interested in 
their being good. This was a curious way 
to save life, but " necessity is the mother 
of invention " and something had to be 
done. 

Ferdinand gives us a most interesting col- 
lection of Indian stories of "Beliefs and 
Idolatry and how they serve their Gods," 
taken from a " manuscript of F. Roman 
concerning the Antiquities of the Indians, 
which he, as being skilled in their Tongue, 
has carefully gathered by Order of the Ad- 
miral." One interesting thing he says is, 
" They can neither read, nor count beyond 
Ten." 



COLUMBUS AND WHAT HE FOUND. 267 

Columbus finally readied home again. 
He died two years after, l)elieving, as others 
did, that he had discovered the East 1)y 
going West. 

He did not really ever come to want, for 
he always had friends and a pair of loving 
sons, who did what they could for him, and 
God made up to him in heaven all that be- 
longed to him. 

People did not make much ado about 
him when he died, they were too busy with 
his discovery. Only a few knew when it 
was that he went to his last home; but we 
in these days will never forget him. We 
shall always love him and help to honor 
him for his heroism and his faith in finding 
for the world something better than he 
knew, this Land of Liberty. 



104 W 



